New Reality
by fortheloveofb
Summary: When Draco Malfoy died shortly after the end of the war, he certainly hadn't bargained on his least favorite Gryffindor greeting him from beyond the grave. Or introducing himself as the 'Master of Death.' Not only that, but Draco has been given the responsibility of being reborn to help another child of prophecy. In a completely different universe. Luck just isn't with him.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter or Naruto franchises.**

 **Warnings: depictions of violence/torture, mentions of suicide and implied rape (very minimal, they don't actually happen), language**

 **Prologue**

A silence pervaded the courtroom. "Draco Lucius Malfoy, the Wizengamot has reached a decision. Taking into account the testimony of Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, Narcissa Malfoy, and Rubeus Hagrid, as well as what our own aurors and officials have witnessed during the war, we hereby sentence you to three months in Azkaban. Once those three months are over you will be on house arrest for one year. Your wand will be monitored, and you may be brought back to this court for any suspicious wand activity—including but not limited to the unforgivables, obliviate, and any offensive spells that can be used to harm others. If you are brought in you will have the chance to explain your actions to the court and we will decide what to do with you from there. If we don't deem your reasoning acceptable you will be placed back in Azkaban for the remainder of your house arrest sentence—as long as it wasn't an unforgivable. Do you understand these terms?"

"Yes, Chief Warlock. I understand," Draco Malfoy replied. He had seen better days, his hair was lank and lacklustre, and his clothes were rumpled, however, he didn't look defeated. His back was as straight as it had always been before the Voldemort returned, and his eyes held a spark of life that wasn't there when the Dark Lord was still under his manor's roof. It seemed like new life had been breathed into him. He knew his sentence could have been much worse, and he was actually surprised that Weasel King and the Mudbl-Muggleborn had spoken out for him. Honestly it felt like pity, but—unlike most people—Draco doesn't hate pity; especially when pity gets his Azkaban sentence cut down. He figures it can't be worse than living in the same house as his former master for a year, the only difference was less food and luxury. Of course, he would hate it, but he supposes it will be better than being put under the cruciatus curse just because he hadn't done a new dark curse properly—courtesy of his loving aunt Bellatrix.

All in all, Draco was fairly apathetic. He was just relieved that the worst was over. In three months he can get back to his life, because honestly, he could do plenty of work from home—he didn't particularly want to parade around in front of everyone as a former Death Eater. Even with two-thirds of the Golden Trio in his corner, his reputation was still in tatters in the eyes of wizarding society. Especially since his animosity with the Boy-Who-Lived was so well known, and the fact that he was murdered by Draco's own aunt. It was one of the very first things Draco heard once he got to court, and would have had his jaw dropping to the floor if he hadn't been bred properly. Potter, Perfect Potter, was dead. He had defeated the Dark Lord, but Bellatrix LeStrange had gotten him from behind not ten seconds after the body of her master hit the floor. Draco had an understandably difficult time believing this, his long time rival had defeated Voldemort just to be brought low by a Death Eater seconds later?

He surprisingly feels no glee or happiness from the news. Potter was always there, snubbing and embarrassing him, but despite all evidence to the contrary he never wanted him dead, well, at least not after all the Dumbledore business went down. Before that Draco is sure he would have been dancing on his grave, and inviting all the Slytherins to desecrate the tombstone—you get the picture. Things changed though, especially after the Golden Trio were captured and brought to the Manor. By then he had no issue admitting to himself that he was rooting for Potter, the only reason he fought them when they were escaping was his self preservation. The blonde had never felt such pain before in his life compared to that night when Voldemort arrived to find that he had had Potter in his grasp just for him to narrowly escape, with Draco's wand no less.

Court was convened and two aurors came to escort him to the cells in the Ministry. They wouldn't take him to Azkaban today, at the end of the week two groups of ten convicted Death Eaters will be taken together along with about twenty aurors at different times. From what he's heard though, they at least will all have different cells. During the Dark Lords short reign there were as many as ten to a cell at a time. He can only imagine the conditions of the 'criminals.' Not that snake-face had cared, Draco is fairly sure he reveled in it—probably misplaced payback of some past wrong done to him. A person isn't that insane without any prompting, at least he didn't believe anyone is born thinking 'hey, I'm going to kill an entire group of people even though I'm technically one of them.' Yeah, everyone knows about his status as a half-blood now. They've done quite a few articles about him in the past few weeks with a lot of commentary from Weaselby and Granger—who had inside information from Potter apparently. As much as Draco doesn't believe that anyone deserved what happened to them over the past year or so, he still finds it appalling that a half-blood was leading the pureblood 'revolution.' It figures though.

Anyway, as he was removed from the courtroom he received quite a number of glares, but also a hand full of sympathetic looks. His mother grabbed his hand as he walked by and squeezed it. "I'll see you soon Draco. I can't visit since I'm on house arrest as well, but I will have everything ready for your return," she told him with a strained—but affectionate—smile, obviously trying to retain her composure. She had only been given a year on house arrest—manor arrest?—as she had never had the Dark Mark, nor acted under the Dark Lords direction in any capacity outside of her home. She had only harbored him under her roof, and was mostly seen as a victim of circumstance. His father on the other hand had been given twenty years in Azkaban. Draco gave his mother a grateful nod, but remained silent. He felt his eyes beginning to burn, and felt like he had gillyweed plugging up his throat. He knew if he opened his mouth, he would more than likely begin sobbing.

Just because he knew things were better than they could have been didn't mean that the seventeen-year-old was happy about going to that disgusting prison—to no doubt eat barely edible food in less than stellar conditions. He turned away to walk between the aurors, and followed them to the lift. Turns out the cell he would be staying in was actually on the same level as the aurors office, which made sense he supposed. His bunk mate was surprisingly an older Slytherin alumni, Adrian Pucey. They weren't friendly with each other, especially considering how his family sold out during the last battle. It didn't matter to most that many Death Eaters stayed loyal more out of fear than any happiness with the new regime, they were still considered deserters. Historically, deserters are almost always seen as scum, and this was no different. The two spent the night on opposite sides of the cell in total silence.

* * *

The trip to Azkaban was uneventful. They were taken to the atrium where they each grabbed hold of a rope tied in a loop. Draco and the others all had on magic suppressing cuffs, so that even if one of them somehow managed to grab a wand they still wouldn't be able to attack or escape. It was also a precaution against wandless magic—not that it was common, but all of them had been subordinates of the worst Dark Lord of the century. It's better to be safe than sorry. He knew quite a few of the future inmates, unfortunately. They were mostly parents of classmates that were in Slytherin with him, but there were a few Slytherins from a few years ahead of him such as Marcus Flint, his former quidditch captain.

His first look at Azkaban was far from encouraging. It was an imposing grey building made up of large, thick uniform slabs, and Draco could practically _feel_ the powerful wards surrounding the place. No one would be escaping the re-imagined Azkaban anytime soon. Even the hole in security about anigamus forms had been corrected. There were now wards up that prevented anyone, even the guards, from transforming in the case that they are an animagus. Not that that actually mattered to Draco, as he definitely was not one. Everyone was silent as they trudged up the path to the metal door that led into the establishment.

The next two hours were spent filling out paperwork—why is there paperwork for going to prison?—, being doled out uniforms, and, much to Draco's surprise, a toothbrush. During this time he discovered that quite a sum of government money went into improving the prison. It wasn't completely redone, but new bathrooms had been installed. Two bathrooms on each level, one for men and one for women. They give you a bathroom break three times a day, and you get one shower a week—apparently if a prisoner had to go to the bathroom at any time aside from the scheduled times, they have to use the bucket that is in each cell for that sole reason. Disgusting.

The money wasn't only for the slight renovations, most of it was being funneled into the many positions that needed to be filled now that dementors aren't feasible as guards. It was good for the reconstruction that was going on after the war, making many new jobs for all of those that lost them during the Dark Lord's reign. The money that the Ministry was putting into the jobs was basically coming back to them from the new employees putting their paychecks right back into the economy as everyone recovers. Since the ministry was turning a new leaf, they were also doing rigorous background checks on all the new employees for two reasons; both to make sure the applicant isn't a Voldemort supporter, and to make sure that an applicant doesn't have a direct reason to hurt or kill any of the new inmates. Draco can't help but sigh in relief at that stipulation.

After all of them were finished with the paperwork, they were each escorted to their new cells. Draco was one of the last shown to his, but was quickly shoved in once they got there. He spun around, fixing to say some choice words, but with a final clang the reinforced door was slammed shut by the auror outside. He heard the lock slide into place. With a sigh he turned back around to survey his 'home' for the next three months. It was utterly drab, as he expected. Although, it was considerably cleaner than the blonde had anticipated. Not to say it was to his standards, it's just that he was imagining black mold, wet walls, and lots of bugs. In reality, it was just grey, dry, and empty aside from the bucket, a sad excuse for a 'bedroll', and a small barred window. The 'bedroll' was actually just a pile of mostly clean hay with two thin sheets on top. It's not exactly heated in the cell either, more than two thin sheets were needed to stay comfortably warm—but Draco supposes that's the point. Prisoners aren't meant to be comfortable. Besides, like hell was Draco going to use both sheets to cover up, the first one is going to be used as a buffer between the grey-eyed boy and the less-than-sanitary hay.

After his short inspection of the cell he went over to the window, it was almost too high for Draco to see out of. His view was of the ocean, naturally. That's probably the only nice thing about the cell despite the fact that he had to crane his neck to get a decent look. He lifted up his arm and gently pressed his fingers toward the gap in the cell window—they quickly met resistance in the form of wards. He had suspected, but it was worth a check. He hoped that it was to keep bad weather out just as much as it was to keep him in.

With a sigh, Draco went to the corner and flipped the bucket to make an improvised seat. With all the leaps and bounds the conditions in Azkaban had made, he couldn't believe they hadn't even given them any seating arrangements in their cells. How unusually cruel. Now he had to use a shit bucket, a small pile of hay, or the bare floor. He has a feeling this is going to be a long three months.

* * *

 **(One month later)**

Draco was, once again, standing on top of his yet-to-be-used shit bucket. He had his arms crossed, propped up on the window ledge. His cheek was resting on his forearm as he watched the waves crash against the rocky shore of the island. There were a few seagulls flying about, and occasionally they fought over a piece of food. This was about as entertaining as things got in his plebeian cell.

Occasionally the other ex-Death Eater's had conversations, but Draco never joined them—nor did he think he would be welcome. He certainly listened though, if only to stifle the boredom. The last month had dragged by at a slow crawl. The teen just couldn't imagine dealing with this torture for years on end, he was going to be at the end of his rope by the time that his sentence was served. That's not even mentioning the 'food' they got twice a day—yes, only twice. It was usually completely bland, unseasoned soup with highly questionable chunks of meat, two slices of bread, a few pieces of over-ripe fruit, and water—or a tepid cup of tea if you were lucky. They occasionally got porridge in the mornings with a stale scone. Sometimes they even got watered down ale with the meal in the afternoon. Still, it was as if they intentionally made everything terrible. Draco wouldn't be surprised, but it was more likely that they were stretching their resources—and the prisoners eating well isn't too high up on the 'most important' list.

Draco was hoping it would be his turn for the weekly shower soon, his hair was grimy as hell this week. Apparently it's also the time of month where they dispose of the old hay from the 'beds' and dole out new hay. Draco doesn't know whether he should be amused or brassed off that the ministry is willing to buy new hay every month rather than just buy each cell an actual cot.

The blonde sighed as he stepped down and away from the window ledge. He could hear the next inmate over taking a shit in his bucket. Draco hates it when other's can't hold it until the scheduled bathroom breaks, because the stench pervades the entire floor and lingers for days sometimes—even though house elves clean the buckets out every night. Occasionally a guard will spell the smell away if they're irritated enough, but they're more likely to cast a bubblehead charm on themselves instead. Why spare the Death Eaters if they don't have to? And here Draco thought he was petty, this was practically inhumane.

About an hour later a guard came to escort Draco to his weekly shower. They were only given ten minutes, one bar of soap, and freezing cold water. No one would be getting their rocks off in this shower, that's for sure. Shower, singular. Draco was at least relieved that he didn't have to share a shower with a whole bunch of naked Death Eaters. The guard let him out and followed behind him, wand pointed at his back to discourage misbehavior. Once he was in the shower room he quickly stripped, eager to get clean even if the water was cold as ice.

* * *

Despite his eagerness to get clean, he only used seven of his ten allotted minutes. Patting himself dry with his too-small, scratchy towel, Draco stepped out of the freezing stall. It was the little things he had always taken for granted that made this place unbearable. The Slytherin couldn't remember the last time before Azkaban that he had not used a simple charm to dry his hair, or siphon the excess water off of his body.

Looking up, he noted a different guard than before standing by the door, wand at the ready. That in itself wasn't unusual, but the cold way his eyes trailed Draco was certainly strange. He was unfamiliar with this guard, but the guard obviously recognized him.

Getting irritated by the man's blatant staring he snapped, "What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a bloke in his skivvies before?"

"Oh nothing, just a piece of filth that deserves to die," the man replied, ignoring the jibe.

Draco's cheeks burned in part indignation of his gall and part shame at his own actions during the war. "With all due respect, _sir_ ," he spat as he began pulling his clothes on, "I don't think you rightly know what you're talking about."

"What's there to know? Your father has been a Death Eater for decades, you let Death Eaters into a school full of practically defenseless children, and the Dark Lord lived at your manor. As far as I'm concerned, your whole family deserves the kiss," the guard countered evenly.

Draco sneered at the guard, attempting to cover his nervousness. Here he is locked in a bathroom with a man expressing his wish for Draco's death, this isn't good. "You have no idea what it was like living with the Dark Lord. Maybe what I did was wrong, but I did what I had to to keep my family safe. I don't have to explain anything to you," he replied coolly.

The guard stepped away from his position beside the door and stalked forward to poke Draco's chest, "You mean you did what you had to to save your own skin, despite the bad that would happen to others!" He roared. "Three months is too lenient! Your actions had consequences far larger than yourself!" The angered man continued, "Did you know, when you let those Death Eaters into the school three third years were caught in the crossfire? One of the girls who died from complications was my niece. My sister was devastated."

Draco swallowed heavily. He was used to the guilt, but what he wasn't used to, was knowing who he directly affected from his shameful actions. "All I can do is offer my apologies and condolences. I assure you I didn't mean for such a thing to happen in the least," he promised, backing down a bit. He was just hoping he could get back to his cell without being killed.

"That doesn't make what happened change. My sister's sweet little girl is still dead, and all you get is three months? How is that fair?" he questioned. The man brandished his wand against his chest.

"I thought they did background checks to make sure vengeful nutjobs like you didn't get hired," Draco blurted. He found himself shaking with energy, his fight or flight had kicked in.

"Oh, you think they seriously care about you?" The still nameless guard asked, amused. "Do you really think you are the only one who will have 'died mysteriously'? No, quite a few Death Eaters have had 'accidents' or successfully 'committed suicide,'" the man explained with a nasty smirk.

Alarms were blaring in Draco's head. "Guards!" Draco shouted. He was not so prideful that he wouldn't call for assistance when his life depended on it. 'Flight before fight', that's his motto. "Guards, this man is talking about killing me!" He shouted again with a distinct note of panic in his voice.

The man had made no attempt to stop him from raising his voice. "Don't worry, there's a silencing charm on the door."

Fuck.

With no warning, Draco lunged forward—arms lashing out to knock the wand away from his direction, as well as attempt to take it from him. He just needed to disable the silencing charm and alert the other guards. Hopefully, they would take away the pissed off man for attempted murder, but for the first time since his arrival at the wizarding prison he was worried that the other guards wouldn't lift a finger in his defense. He understands the anger and contempt most people hold for Death Eaters, but he didn't think the 'winning side' would stoop so low as to kill them.

The blonde's adrenaline aided him in surprising the guard. He managed to wrestle the wand away, and knee him where it hurts as hard as he could. Hey, Draco never said he was fair. He straightened up and stepped forward quickly, but before he could even attempt to point the wand at the door he was tackled from behind by the guard—Draco was incredibly surprised that the man was able to recover so quickly. They both hit the floor hard and slid into the wall to their left. Draco felt the skin on his arm and cheek rip open from skidding against the rough, concrete floor, and a throbbing knot form on his head from where it bounced off of the wall. At the moment though, that was honestly the least of his concerns.

He pushed up on his hands and knees, and donkey kicked the guard with as much strength as he could muster. Draco was vindictively pleased when he heard an 'oomph!' from behind him, he was pretty sure he had felt a few ribs crack. He risked a glance behind him and noted the man had curled up a bit with one arm held across his stomach, and one holding himself off the floor. Draco extended his leg and swept the arm that was supporting the man off of the floor. The man turned his head before his cheek collided with the ground, and immediately returned both hands under him to help him sit back up.

Draco took advantage of these few precious seconds to revel in holding a wand again—one that was surprisingly receptive to him—and dismantle the silencing charm as quickly as possible. He had just finished the final wand movement, and began to open his mouth when an hand reached around to muffle his yell. The man's other arm came around Draco's middle, pinning his left arm to his body. Unfortunately for him, Draco maneuvered his wand arm away from him and elbowed him in the solar plexus—not that Draco knew that. The guards arms slacked a bit during the initial pain from the hit, and Draco finally managed to move the hand and yell, "Help! This guard is trying to kill me!"

Though the sounds weren't distinct, it sounded as if there were footsteps running towards the bathroom. By this time though the lone guard had regained his faculties. The man scowled at him and used his superior height and weight to slam Draco against the wall. They could both hear the jingling of keys just outside the door, and Draco felt perhaps premature relief at the noise.

"I don't think so," the man growled lowly.

He still had his left arm wrapped around Draco's middle, so he slid it from between Draco and the wall to thread it in front of Draco's left elbow. He used it to pull the arm behind the Slytherin's back in such a way that Draco couldn't move it when the man used his body to put pressure on it. Though he was still a bit dazed from his head colliding against a wall a second time, Draco attempted to twist his hand back toward the guard to cast a blasting curse. He was prepared to spend a few extra months in this hell hole for illegal wand use if it meant he could make it out alive.

Unfortunately for him, the man caught the movement and easily plucked the wand out of his hand with pure force. "Even if they send me to Azkaban for this, it's worth it," he hissed. Draco bucked for his life, but it was no use.

"Avada kedavra!"

The last thing Draco heard before the spell connected with his back was the other guard barging in, screaming for the man to stop. He saw an acid green light and knew no more.

* * *

' _Ugh, someone turn down the lights_ ' Draco thought with a groan as he sat up cracking open his eyes. ' _Where am I?_ ' He looked around groggily, and realized with a start that he had woken up in front of Malfoy Manor, but something was... off. The grounds were completely silent. Draco couldn't hear the peacocks that usually occupied the front garden, no birds, no wind, no plants swaying in the breeze, and no house elves tending the lawn. Just complete silence. It unnerved the teenager greatly as he began walking towards the largest garden. It was surrounded by a high brick wall covered in tasteful trellises. ' _Maybe it's a silencing charm? Was it put on me specifically, or around the grounds in general?_ ' He wondered tersely.

The former Death Eater turned a corner to the inner garden, and let out a completely unmanly shriek—that he will never admit to, even to himself—when he noticed the person leaning on the wall to his immediate left. He let out a few choice curses when he saw just who the other person was. None other than Draco's bane of existence and former rival, Harry 'Boy-Who-Lived' Potter.

"Merlin and Morgana, Potter! Are you trying to give me a bloody heart attack?!" Draco spat furiously in embarrassment with a reddened face.

Turning his emerald eyes toward the Slytherin he smirked, "Nice to see you too, Malfoy."

Draco's brows furrowed quizzically, "Potter, aren't you dead? Why are you at my manor?" the steel eyed boy scowled, "I swear to Merlin if you're here to haunt me I will make your undead existence as miserable as possible."

A snort was heard, "Grow up, Malfoy. The world doesn't revolve around you, and if I had the unfortunate experience of becoming a ghost I wouldn't torture myself by following _you_ around all day," Harry chided lightly.

Draco deflated. "Then what is a dead person doing at my manor? Polyjuice doesn't work with the genetic material of someone who is dead... It figures Perfect Potter would survive somehow," he grunted lowly.

"Look again Malfoy, is this really your manor?" Harry countered.

He turned away from Harry, and took a second look around. Now that he was looking for irregularities he noticed how unusually bright everything appeared. The sky was blue, but had the appearance of smeared paint; if he looked out and away from the manor the horizon was smudged. Not to mention he once again recognized the silence, and lack of living things.

"Just where are we, Potter?" Draco questioned uneasily.

"Well, where do you think?" Harry inquired, "What happened to you right before you got here?"

Draco gasped as he remembered his fight with the guard, and subsequently being hit with an avada kedavra, "Am I dead?" He asked, flabbergasted.

"You are," Harry admitted softly with a sad smile, "This is where you go after you die."

"People come to my manor after they die?" Draco asked incredulously.

"Don't be silly, Malfoy," the green eyed teen guffawed, "It changes depending on the person. Mine was at King's Cross Station. I suppose it's somewhere important to you that also represents a transition. Maybe the manor is transitory for you because your life changed so drastically after it became the Death Eaters base of operations?" He guessed with a shrug.

Draco mumbled and looked away, "I wouldn't be surprised." Raising his voice he turned back toward Harry and remarked snidely, "So what now? I'm dead, and you're dead. Why are you here? No offense Potter, but you're not exactly the first person I was expecting to see when I died."

Unsurprised, Harry replied, "No shit, Sherlock," the Slytherin's lips down-turned in confusion over the unfamiliar muggle saying, "Actually, you know the bedtime story about the three brothers, right?"

Draco nodded, "Of course. My mother read all of the Tale's of Beedle the Bard to me as a child, I remember them fondly. What the bloody hell could that have to do with this situation though?"

"Alright, well—as completely unbelieveable as it sounds—the tale of the three brothers is true. Death really gave them those items, and the person who holds those three items becomes the Master of Death..." Harry trailed off. "I'm actually a descendant of the youngest brother. The cloak of invisibility has been faithfully passed down every generation. When I was a first year, Dumbledore sent me my father's cloak anonymously. He had had it on the night my parents died.

"The resurrection stone was a Gaunt family heirloom. The last of Slytherin's descendants. They set the stone into a ring, a ring that Voldemort eventually used to store a piece of his soul after framing the previous owner with murder—his inbred uncle to be exact. Dumbledore found the ring during the summer before our sixth year, and when he was too tempted by the stone's powers he was cursed by a spell Voldemort had cast on the ring. That's why his hand was black during our sixth year. He had Snape bind the curse to his hand, but Snape told him he would die within the year since the curse couldn't actually be countered. That's also why he asked Snape to kill him, Draco. He was going to die anyway. By having Snape kill him, Snape reaffirmed his loyalty to Voldemort, and he was able to give our side a few advantages—even if we didn't know it at the time," Draco was still listening, looking very uncertain about the information he was being given.

"Then of course, the wand. Voldemort was obsessed with it during what would have been our seventh year. Turns out, Grindelwald had the wand and when Dumbledore defeated him, the Headmaster became the owner of the Elder wand. As I explained in that last battle—which I don't believe you were present for—Voldemort assumed that since Snape had killed Dumbledore he was the master of the Elder wand, when in fact it was _you_. You had disarmed him—before Snape killed him. And then when _I_ disarmed you in this very manor—" he gestured at the expansive building, "—the ownership transferred to me, even though the wand was buried with Dumbledore at the time. So when Voldemort attempted to kill me that last time, the wand refused to kill it's true owner, and the spell backfired, killing Voldemort," Harry explained, "Then I had all three items."

"So, what exactly are you trying to say, Potter?" Draco joked, "That you're the 'Master of Death?'"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," the Boy-Who-Lived-Then-Died assured seriously.

The blonde rolled his eyes as he leaned against the brick wall next to his former rival, "Are you taking the piss?! You must be off your rocker!" Draco guffawed, "The 'Master of Death', yeah, sure, Potter. I must be dreaming. I'll probably wake up at St. Mungo's soon," he added with a chuckle.

Harry gave him a withering look, "As if I would make a joke about something like this. You think I want to be doing this? I'd much rather be with my family than stuck with this bloody job," he clenched his jaw, "No, unfortunately I really am the Master of Death. And that's the only reason I'm talking to you right now, Malfoy. While I'm here though, let me say thanks for tossing me that wand. You really helped me out there. Your mom saved me in the forest too, you know... she told Voldemort that I was dead even though she could feel my heartbeat. She only did so because I told her you were still alive and up at the castle. Good thing I saved your arse in the Room of Requirement, ehh Malfoy?" The Gryffindor nudged him with a cheeky smile.

Draco was sure his eyes would fall out of his head if he kept rolling them so often, "So, you're the Master of Death and you're not going to punish me, Potter?"

"No, Malfoy. You're not nearly as terrible as you seem to think, and I know this now more than ever," Harry admitted freely.

Draco sneered, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"In my new job, I've already seen much worse, which is surprising considering I've only been doing this job for three months. Anyway, most of what you did was petty or coerced. You really were a product of your upbringing, Malfoy. Besides, when you had the chance to kill Dumbledore you didn't. When the time came, you threw me that wand, and you were hesitant to do anything in the Room of Requirement. Even Crabbe called you out on it. No offense, but you were always a bit of a coward."

"Well, thanks Potter," Draco bit out, "I really appreciate the commentary. I'm so sorry I cared more about my life, and the life of my family rather than others. Maybe I'm selfish, but isn't everybody? Not everyone can be a martyr like you!"

Harry chuckled and bowed his head to look at his feet, "Yeah, I suppose I am a martyr now, aren't I?" He murmured, stepping away from the wall he had been leaning against. "Though much like you, I believe I'm a product of my upbringing. You never knew much about me Draco, despite what you would like to think. As a matter of fact, as much as I respect him I wouldn't be surprised if Dumbledore placed me with my relatives solely to raise me to be a martyr. Not that he didn't care about me, he did. He just cared more about the many than the few," he said bitterly as he began walking towards the double doors that lead to the living room closest to the gardens.

A perfectly sculpted brow lifted as he straightened up and kept pace with Harry, "Oh really? Your precious headmaster would do something like that to his perfect Boy-Who-Lived?"

Harry looked up with a self-depreciating smile, "If it's for 'the greater good' he will do anything. Even sacrifice a boy he himself admitted he saw as a grandchild. My home life before Hogwarts wasn't particularly good. As a matter of fact—as much as I hate to dwell on it—my family was downright abusive towards me. Mostly emotional abuse and neglect though. I think Dumbledore wanted me to be desperate to please, and to think poorly enough of myself to be willing to sacrifice my own life." He opened one of the doors and held it for the blonde.

Draco stopped and stared at Harry, dumbfounded. "Those filthy muggles abused you and the Head Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards _did nothing_? Wait, you have family? Wait, was he really that manipulative?! He seemed like a nutty old codger to me... even when I was on the Astronomy Tower..." he said with a furrowed brow as he stepped over the thresh hold.

"There's much you don't know Draco. I suppose everything worked out though," he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, "I dislike leaving Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and the others, but at least I can see what's going on with everyone," he rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully as he sat down on a chaise in the living room, "Anyway, we aren't here to talk about my past, we're here to talk about _your_ future," he said as he angled his body toward Draco once again.

Draco sat down on his favorite emerald colored chair, crossed his legs, and looked at Harry expectantly, "Well? I apparently died, you're the 'Master of Death', I showed up at my manor which was devoid of everything except you, and apparently I'm not that bad of a person, and you had a shit childhood with shit muggles. Anything else?" He drawled sarcastically, "I'm assuming you're here to 'see me off' or something, right? Do you even know what happens now?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Of course I do. I told you, I'm the Master of Death. What type of master would I be if I didn't know what happens to people afterwards? I'm not going to tell you of course though. No, I'm here to make you an offer, well... less of an offer... more like you have to. Orders from the council unfortunately," Harry grimaced sympathetically.

The blonde raised his eyebrows questioningly, "What type of thing are you talking about, Potter? Going to bring me back to life?" He asked acerbically.

Harry grinned, "Not in the way that you are obviously thinking, but yes."

Draco found himself gaping stupidly for the third time during their short conversation, "R-Really? What do you mean not in the way I'm thinking?" Draco frowned, "Also, what is this council? A council can order around the 'Master of Death?'" He questioned disbelievingly.

"Well, Malfoy, have you ever heard of reincarnation?" Harry asked, ignoring Draco's questions.

"What do you take me for, an idiot?" the Slytherin snapped, ignoring the unanswered queries temporarily, "Of course I know what reincarnation is. Muggles aren't the ones who studied the soul and came up with the theory, you know!"

Harry held up his hands in a placating manner, "Alright, alright! I was just making sure! Well, that's basically what's going on. But there are two differences," the Gryffindor held up two fingers for emphasis and paused dramatically as Draco scowled, "You'll retain all your memories... and you won't be reborn in this world."

Frankly, at this point, Draco was rather sick of having the rug pulled out from under him, and stood up to pace the room, "What do you mean not in this world? Not in the wizarding world? Being reborn as a muggle? Or on a different planet?! Potter, what type of thing is that?! It sounds more like a form of punishment to me."

Harry began laughing uproariously, "Malfoy being reborn as an alien! That's a good one! Merlin, I wish I could tell Ron that one! But no, what I mean is you'll be reborn in a different universe that isn't all that similar to this one. There are humans and civilizations, but it's just... different," he stated with a dopey grin still on his face.

"Stop being a git and take this seriously Potter!" Draco hissed, "What is this anyway? Why give me another chance? Why would I want to be reborn in this other world?! Does this happen to everyone? Would I be a muggle? Explain!"

Draco's anxious questioning sobered the raven haired boy up quickly as he told him, "I'm sorry, Draco. If I could send you off on the Knight Bus to the next plane I would. That's where all souls go after they die; at least, in this universe," he explained, "No, this doesn't happen often, at all. Honestly, there was a bit of a mix up... I don't know if I'm relieved about it or not. You know how I was a child of prophecy?" Here Draco nodded, "Well, there is a boy of prophecy in this world too."

The blonde groaned and covered his face with his hands, "Ugh. Potter. Don't do this to me! Having to live a second life in the presence of _another_ one of you! This really is a cruel joke!" He grumbled. "And what does that have to do with me?!" He glared at Harry hotly.

With a sheepish smile he crossed his legs and responded, "Well, apparently the Council didn't expect me to become the Master of Death. I was supposed to die and from there they were going to send me to this other world to aid the boy, or at the very least move things in the right direction. That's why I said I'm not sure if I'm relieved or not. I don't have to go through that since I got this gig, but this gig lasts until when or _if_ someone else collects all three Deathly Hallows. And considering I threw the stone into the Forbidden Forrest, and Hermione buried the wand with me it's not looking likely... So I'll be stuck doing this for a while," he mumbled looking rather sulky, "But now the problem is that since I'm not going they want to send someone else. And for some blasted reason they chose you," he shrugged.

With a blank face Draco asked him flatly, "And _what_ exactly have I done to get a recommendation for such a job, Potter? Are you trying to get me killed a second time or what? You know, after I got out of Azkaban I was just going to live a normal, _peaceful_ , life. I don't want anymore strife!" he exclaimed. "We've been incredibly civil to each other thus far, but I just find it a little bloody difficult to believe that out of all the heroic prats that have died recently that anyone, especially these 'council' you keep mentioning, would pick _me_ to go to some alternate universe that has something so incredibly wrong with it that they require a child of prophecy too! Excuse me if I'm a little fucking skeptical! I just _died_ , Potter," he said slowly, "I just died and I won't ever get to see my mother again. My father either. I won't be able to have children, or take them to Diagon Alley to get their wands. I won't be able to see them off at the Hogwarts Express for the first time. I don't even have a _chance_ , because even if I get reborn it will be in an entirely different universe! I know that you just died too, but as previously stated I'm a little bleeding selfish. Even though I don't necessarily want to move on, why would I want to reincarnate in a universe where I don't know a soul? Somewhere where I'll most likely have to live through another war? Honestly, we were lucky that this war was fairly short. You did your part, Potter, and I give you my sincerest thanks for that. But why would they ask this of me?" He seethed, looking at Harry with angry tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

Harry regarded him seriously and responded, "Draco, I know how you feel, really, I do. Dying and then waking up with a job you didn't ask for... well, we're on the same exact boat. I wish I weren't the bearer of bad news, but I am. We have both had those choices taken from us, and—as much as we won't want to—we have to make the best of what we have. At least we have consolation prizes! I get to see all of my friends, and how their lives are going. When they die, I get to greet them, and have some long overdue conversation. You get to go to an entire new place, you prat! How many people get to say things like that? You get a second life, and you've already learned a lot of lessons from this life that you can use to be a better person in the next one. You can be on the correct side of the conflict this time around," the Gryffindor encouraged.

With a scowl Draco ordered, "Well then, tell me more about this 'job.' And don't think for a second that I forgot about this council you keep mentioning!"

With a sigh Harry relented, "I didn't think you did, Malfoy. Alright, well the Council is made up of different entities such as Fate, Time, Luck, Chaos, Life, and now me since I'm the Master of Death. I call them by generic names, but they have been called many things throughout history. They had a vote on whether you would be a good candidate for this job or not, apparently Fate has something specific in mind, but only Chaos and I voted against it. And honestly I only think Chaos voted against it because it was against the majority... Chaos does that a lot apparently.

"As for the job, well I've pretty much told you what I can. I honestly don't know much myself. It's in another universe, there is a boy of prophecy that is facing a far greater foe than anticipated, and he's going to go through a lot of hardship before that happens. That's pretty much what I know. I don't know who the boy is, I don't know where you will be in relation to him—just that you will come in contact with him before the prophecy is in affect. I don't even know how to look into the universe you will be in. They're going to show me how _after_ you've been reborn. I can only guess that they don't want me to give you any heads up about what you're getting into," Harry informed him uncomfortably.

"Geez, Potter. That sure is a lot to go on," Draco remarked sarcastically. "You'd think I would meet a lot of people in this world, and I won't even know who the prophecy kid is? Great. And that council sounds grand. Hopefully I never have to meet them. I have some choice words that I would love to say, but I wouldn't because what type of idiot provokes deities like that?! And Fate has something specific in mind? For _me_? This just keeps getting better and better! I'm sold!" Draco threw up his hands dramatically. "At least tell me that I'll have magic! Don't strip me of my basic heritage!"

The raven cocked his head, "How do you define magic Draco?" He asked.

Draco glared at him before contemplating the question. "As a power that goes against the basic laws of physics, I suppose," he said musingly.

"Then yes, you'll have magic," Harry told him with a cocky smirk.

Draco eyed him warily, "And what the bloody hell is that supposed to mean you prat?"

"Don't worry, Malfoy. Your precious face won't be defenseless," Harry teased. "From what I understand, they have something similar to magic. You'll definitely have it, because a civilian wouldn't be able to help this world very much otherwise."

"Well, at least I have something to give me hope," Draco huffed, exasperated.

"Yes, and here's something else you may not have known. After a magical child is born, the magic in their body merges with the physical manifestation of their soul," Harry trailed off meaningfully.

"You mean—" Draco surmised,"—that when I'm reborn there is a good chance that I will still have my magic?"

"Yes," Harry confirmed. " _But_ I have no idea how it will manifest since you will have this new power alongside your magic. They may work independently, or they may fuse. We can only guess until your soon-to-be new body is old enough to manipulate those powers to find out."

"Alright, so is this happening now? Am I taking over a baby's body? What's going to happen?"

The Gryffindor pursed his lips, "No, we wouldn't do that. Your soul will be placed within the mother's body before the fetus's own soul manifests. Whenever we're done talking it will be time to go, yes. So it's really the luck of the draw with who you're born to I suppose—whoever is at the right time in their pregnancy in that universe."

Draco made a noise of disgust, "That's revolting. Besides, why the fuck will me being there be beneficial to this universe? If you haven't noticed I'm a selfish, self-serving piece of shit that used to crucio helpless muggles on command."

"Stop with the self-pity, Malfoy. That won't cut it with me. Just look at it as atonement. Change yourself for the better. It doesn't have to be immediate, you know. Change is gradual. Make friends, bond with others, have a good second chance at life."

The blonde turned away and began to amble down the closest hallway grinding his teeth.

Harry's voice easily carried over the short distance, "Besides, I saw. I know what you did for that first girl, and eventually all of the others..."

* * *

 **-Flashback-**

 _"Come, Draco," the high, cold voice beckoned him, "It's your turn to do the honors." The Dark Lord smirked at him as if he knew Draco hated this, which admittedly, he probably did. The man_ — _if he could be called that_ — _was one of the best Leglimens in the world, supposedly. Personally, Draco didn't doubt it. That was why Draco had been studying leglimency and occlumency obsessively during the time he had been ensconced in his family home after the disastrous end of his sixth year. He avoided eye contact whenever feasible, and followed his orders so that his master had less of a reason to go digging too far in his mind._

 _The young Death Eater stepped farther into the room toward the circle of the higher ranks. He slowly pushed past them to encroach the empty inner circle_ — _empty aside from a single muggle teenage girl. She was a brunette with light brown eyes, and Draco was startled to realize that he found this muggle rather attractive._

 _"Well? What are you waiting for, Draco? Another invitation?" Voldemort asked mockingly with his shrewd gaze leveled at him. Most of those present laughed, and he even heard his aunt tittering close to their master's throne. His parents, thankfully, we absent for now. His mother was probably cooped up in her room, and his father was on a financial mission dealing with the werewolves apparently. He was glad they wouldn't have to watch this._

 _The girl, who was probably two years younger than him, looked up at him with terrified, watery eyes, "Please, please, I don't know why I'm here! I don't remember how I got here, but don't hurt me! My father, he can pay you I'm su_ — _" the teen quickly cut off with a painfully shriek. A decent sized gash appeared across her collarbone dousing her shirt in warm blood._

 _"As if we want any money from you, you filthy muggle," Voldemort hissed contemptuously. "The only reason you are here is for our entertainment," the girl made an absolutely petrified face as she looked around at all the men in the room, "Don't be disgusting. My men would never sully themselves with the likes of you. No, Draco here will show you how we like to have fun," he grinned as he panned his gaze at his gathered subordinates._

 _Draco gulped as unobtrusively as possible, he surveyed the brunette as he stepped even closer. She cowered as she held her hands to the gash attempting to stem the flow of blood. Before he lost his nerve he raised his wand to her, gathered as much vindictive hate as he could muster, and murmured, "_ Crucio _." The girl's eyes went wide, mouth open in what was at first a silent scream. After a second had passed a piercing wail echoed around the chamber. The girl began writhing on the ground as her fingernails tried to find purchase on the floor. After fifteen seconds the curse broke off. The young teen's chest was heaving as she tried to regain her breath, and she was completely limp on the floor. By the end of those fifteen seconds her fingernails were completely torn up, and the tips of her fingers were raw and bleeding. Draco had never felt so much self disgust in his entire life._

 _The Dark Lord made a derisive noise, "Fifteen seconds. Fifteen seconds. That's the best you can do after spending over a year and a half in my service? No wonder you couldn't kill the old goat if you can't even hold a cruciatus curse for longer than that." Once again all the gathered Death Eaters laughed, while Bellatrix looked like she was contemplating teaching her 'wittle baby nephew' how to do it properly. By demonstrating on him, of course_ — _not that it would have been the first time his insane aunt had placed that particular curse on him. "Do it again. Hold it for at least two minutes this time, or you will be joining her," his master warned him._

 _Clenching his teeth, Draco turned back to his victim. Because that's what she is. His victim. He had to swallow down a bit of bile before it could come hurling out all over the floor. Clearing his mind using his ever improving occulmency, he brought forth all the things that he hated_ — _Voldemort, the Dark Mark branding his arm, the sound of his aunt's cackling, watching other Death Eaters laugh as they killed peoples' families right in front of them, the idiotic ministry for allowing this to happen, his parents' faces growing more haggard all the time_ — _and once again cast the curse. "_ Crucio _," he said, more firmly this time. The brunette immediately began convulsing as her eyes rolled up in her head. She shrieked so loud and long that it quickly petered out to silent screaming, her mouth still wide open as her face pressed into the floor looking for some relief to the agony coursing through her body. For the next two minutes Draco never took his eyes off of her, burning this pain he was causing her into his memory. He hated this so much, but it was his life or hers_ — _just a muggle. And he certainly valued his skin over a random teenage muggle._

 _"Much better, Draco," Voldemort sarcastically praised him. "Go back to your rooms then, the next meeting is at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Don't be late, or I'll send your loving aunt to wake you up. Understand?"_

 _The blonde nodded mutely and took his dismissal for what it was. He left the chamber to head back to his room, glad that he at least didn't have to stick around to watch anything else they had planned for the young girl._

* * *

 ** _(Several hours later)_**

 _After sitting in his favorite arm chair by the fireplace_ — _though it wasn't lit_ — _for hours on end, Draco finally decided on a course of action. He was by no means a generous, selfless person, but this would be beneficial to himself as well. As training. A test. A test that if he should fail, might get him pointlessly executed. Draco had to admit to himself, it was a little freeing to choose this approach_ — _not that he wasn't terrified out of his bloody wits._

 _The Slytherin casually made his way towards the dungeon. He passed a few Death Eaters on the walk down, but none of them even glanced his way. Once he got near the cells he was relieved to see a familiar face that he could use to his advantage._

 _Peter Pettigrew_ — _the disgusting little pissant_ — _was guarding the entrance to the cells tonight. He was always an absolute pushover, even for younger Death Eaters like himself. Especially if you had enough attitude._

 _"Oi! Pettigrew!" Draco snapped._

 _Pettigrew flinched, but blustered up enough courage to straighten up and respond evenly, "What is it, Malfoy? I can't leave here, I'm on guard duty tonight." He puffed himself up importantly._

 _The younger sneered. "I don't know why the Dark Lord would trust_ you _to guard the prisoners. You couldn't stop a first year straight out of their first DADA class."_

 _The rat animagus glared at him hotly_ — _Draco raised an eyebrow that dared Pettigrew to disagree with him. "What do you want?" the man grumbled, obviously losing his nerve against the cool and collected Malfoy heir._

 _With a smirk Draco responded, "I just wanted to go practice a few curses Aunt Bellatrix just taught me." Pettigrew shuddered, his creativity imagining all sorts of curses the teen might have learned from the insane woman. Luckily, the man hadn't been present at the earlier meeting_ — _and rightly no one liked him_ — _so no one had told him of the humiliating scene where Draco's_ crucio _had failed so quickly._

 _"W-well, it's almost eleven... the screams could disturb the others...," Pettigrew stuttered._

 _The blonde scoffed. "What am I, twelve? I know how to do a simple silencing charm," Draco growled derisively. "Or are you saying that because_ you _still don't know how to do one? Not everyone conforms to your low standards." Draco snarked. He was almost having fun, he never got to treat anyone like this anymore. It feels good to be above someone for once and blow off some steam._

 _The older, shorter man bristled, "Of course I know the silencing charm!" Pettigrew hissed indignantly. "I'm not a bleeding idiot!"_

 _"Well, alright then. Move aside and let me get to practicing," Draco twirled his wand between his fingers. "Or should I test them out on you instead?" He asked, his demeanor quickly changing from confrontational to jovial, as if he would just love to test his new spellwork on the diminutive wizard._

 _"N-No, no!" The man quickly assured. "Go on down, just don't outright kill them and make sure you put up that silencing charm!"_

 _"That's what I thought," Draco said with a quirk to his lips. "I'll be back in probably an hour or so. Give me some privacy, eh? I want to have these right when it comes time to use them in front of our master."_

 _Pettigrew gulped, "Of course. I'll be sure you have some time, no one is scheduled to be here for another three hours."_

 _"Perfect," Draco whispered as he slipped open the door leading down to the cells._

* * *

 _He quickly made his way to the cells where the muggles were kept, hoping that the girl had been kept to send to the werewolves or as a 'practice dummy' for younger recruits. Not that he wanted her to have to go through that, but he might lose his nerve otherwise. He wasn't going to free her or anything remotely suicidal like that, no, he wasn't that idiotic. He wants to attempt to help her in her mind, using his hopefully well developed leglimency._

 _He hadn't had much to practice on seeing as most Death Eater's knew what it felt like to have their minds breached_ — _courtesy of the Dark Lord. No, he mostly brushed the front of the minds of lower tier Death Eaters whom rarely had audiences with their master, and house elves. The elves are always so eager to please, especially since Draco had began treating them better. Which was a result of how he went from being treated like a spoiled prince, to being treated like an unwelcome pest_ — _in his own house no less! He figured that must be how the house elves felt quite often, even more so in Malfoy Manor where his father felt no qualm in kicking them if their job wasn't to his utmost satisfaction._

 _Anyway, he would be doing a good deed for the girl_ — _as if that would cancel out all the bad he's done_ — _and if he could figure out how to manipulate a muggle's brain it certainly wasn't too much of a leap to think he could manipulate another wizard's. This has so much potential all wrapped in one highly dangerous practice test. Which brings him to the current cell of the brunette teen from earlier. He stood there silently for a few moments watching her currently sleeping form. She looked worse off than before, her hair was matted with dirt and there were clear tracks down her face from the tears she had shed_ — _but all of her injuries had been mended. Not out of consideration to her, but so that she wouldn't die before she reached the end of her usefulness. Her entire outfit was covered in now dried blood that he could tell from experience was going to stick to her skin_ — _and pull out any body hair that may be adhered to the substance._

 _He unlocked the door silently with his wand, but it creaked when the door swung in. Predictably, the girl's eyes sprang open at the noise indicating that one of her captors had entered her cell. The sound usually meant she was about to be in a lot of pain, already she seemed to have permanent tremors from the nerve damage to her system due to being under the cruciatus curse so many times. Draco assumed she was being used as a practice dummy then, not being sent to the werewolves_ — _which brought him a modicum of relief. She sat up, shuffled backward until her back was against the wall, and began quaking even worse than before. She obviously recognized him from the meeting earlier that day._

 _Not having time to waste he quickly cast a stunning spell on her, and a silencing charm on the perimeter just in case. He didn't want to have to talk to her unnecessarily or explain any of the details. It was for her benefit anyway. He didn't want her thankfulness for what he was going to do, or her anger if she happened to be upset he wasn't going to help her escape. Mostly because he is a coward who doesn't want to face this girl he tortured less than twelve hours ago._

 _He transfigured a rock into an armchair_ — _in green and silver, of course_ — _because like hell was he going to squat down on that filthy floor for what may take a few hours, they don't exactly have toilets down here. He transfigured another rock into an armchair, and levitated the girl into it so that they were sitting across from each other sitting at about the same eye level. Draco used a temporary sticking charm to keep her eyelids open, and applied a charm to keep her eyes from drying out as well. He isn't completely inconsiderate._

 _Before he could change his mind he whispered,_ "Leglimens."

* * *

 _He had been inside his own mindscape before while studying occlumency, it was Hogwarts to his surprise. Mostly based around the dungeons. Of course it would be, that was where the Slytherin common room and the potions classroom were. This was the first time that he had actually been inside another human's mindscape. The house elves didn't actually have mindscapes, which made it actually easier to sift through their thoughts_ — _there was no where for any information to hide. This girl seemed to have a very simple mindscape. Draco could tell she was a daydreamer. He was glad it was nothing that would take a whole lot of time. He had read before of muggles who could change their mindscapes just as well as a witch or wizard_ — _though it took them much more time and dedication._

 _Her mindscape was a very ordinary meadow with a large grassy field and flowers strewed throughout. There was a moderate sized pond to the far left with darker clouds above it, it looked like it was about to rain. There was nothing defending the meadow, not any animals or anything, but on the very edges of the meadow and beyond there were scattered trees. He was half surprised she had a mindscape at all, though he did assume she would have one. Yet another piece of evidence that showed muggles weren't mindless brutes._

 _From walking around the meadow he found out her name was Sarah Goldfinch, the puffy clouds that made up the part of the sky that weren't rain clouds spelled her name out clearly. It was a strange way to discover her name though. He looked down at some of the flowers as he passed, there were memories playing in the dew that had settled on the petals. Draco found out her father was a fairly well-off entrepreneur, and that she had an older sister and a younger brother who are both very close to her. Draco can only imagine what the family is going through right about now. He strayed underneath the cloudy area next to the pond. In a puddle near the pond he watched a memory play out of a phone call she got at school two years previously_ — _she was told her mother had just perished when she was hit by a drunk driver on her way home from work. The area under the clouds must be where her darker, sadder memories are kept. He does his best after that to stay away from any more personal information about the girl, he doesn't want to humanize her any more than he already has. That's just asking for trouble._

 _After watching that he gazed down at the pond and noticed it was deeper than what he would have thought, farther down it was pitch black and he couldn't see bottom at all. The blonde inferred that this was probably where she was keeping the memories of her torture thus far. Draco decided to walk around the perimeter of the meadow to look for a suitable place for what he needed to do._

 _He managed to find a hollow in a tree fairly quickly that would do perfectly for his purposes. The magical teen's wand materialized in his hand. Though he didn't_ actually _have his wand, it felt more natural for him to focus his magic with his usual foci in his hand. He would be less inclined to messing up if he felt more in control of his magic, especially for something as delicate as mind magic. The Dark Lord usually used brute force, but Draco was much more suited to being subtle_ — _he found it was funny, he personally thought it would have been the opposite._

 _Muttering to himself, he began weaving a ward over the empty hollow, this ward was to redirect any pain the girl experienced behind this barrier. He then weaved a more finely spun ward into the first one to prevent any of the pain from spilling back out into the girl's_ — _Sarah's_ — _mind. The third ward was on top of the first two, and it was meant to mute her negative feelings, such as horror, embarrassment, and hopelessness. He knew it wasn't the most ethical thing to do, the girl deserved to have control of herself and her emotions, but at what price? Draco won't go so far as to say that he knows how she is feeling, because he doesn't. But he has a vague idea from how he feels trapped at the manor, and being cursed by both his aunt and his master regularly. He can't imagine living down here knowing that everyday left in her existence will be to be used as torture practice for people who hate her for no good reason. The blonde just wants to make this as least painful as possible for her, even if it's just to make her last days easier._

 _After the main work is done he pulls away from the hollow, in the mindscape it only appears to be a spiderweb covering the entrance to the inside of the tree. The only thing that looks misplaced is that the spiderweb is golden, and the inside of the tree is completely dark. Draco has a feeling his body outside of the mindscape is sweating_ — _it was extremely grueling work that sounds much easier in principal than in practice._

 _The very last thing Draco does is weave a prompt that layers over her whole mindscape invisibly. It's technically a dark form of magic, but hell, he's already a Death Eater who has done worse things. One more dark spell won't make a difference one way or another. This one was to cover his tracks_ — _after all, if the girl doesn't feel any pain she normally wouldn't respond to the torture. This prompted her to act in a certain way depending on which spell was cast on her. The spell actually took more work than the rest combined. He had to sink it down into her very sub-conscience so that even if a spell was cast on her in her sleep she would act accordingly. Then he had to catalogue every spell he could think of that were regularly cast at muggles that might cause pain, and what the appropriate actions would be. Her reaction to the cruciatus curse was the easiest since she had already experienced that pain before, she would just have to react in a similar way. For another example, if she were cut with a laceration curse she would need to cry, yelp, grab onto the afflicted area, and attempt to make her body a smaller target. Draco ended up having to do this for about thirty individual spells._

 _After he was done he felt exceedingly tired, he slumped against the nearest tree in her mindscape and surveyed his work. Even looking as hard as he could he didn't make out any overt signs that he had been there. Honestly, even if someone noticed that she wasn't acting completely normal Draco didn't think anyone would think much of it. A Death Eater would be more likely to kill her outright rather than take her to the Dark Lord under suspicion of someone meddling with her mind. They would probably think it was just a muggle thing, or that she was losing her mind from the torture. Draco was a bit paranoid, but he wasn't overly concerned._

 _With a last glance around, Draco nodded to himself and carefully extricated himself from her mind. Once he was looking back at her unblinking form, he looked about to make sure he was still alone. If he would have thought about it sooner he would have cast a proximity ward, but his nerves must have affected his thinking. Luckily, it appeared that no one had been down. He removed the charms that kept her eyes wet, and eyelids open. He levitated her back into her corner, untransfigured the two armchairs, and muttered,_ "Enervate," _into the silence of the room._

 _Her eyelids fluttered open. Once again, when she saw Draco she scuttled backward as far as she could go_ — _even though she has already been propped against the wall when she woke._

 _Draco once again leveled his wand at her and cast,_ "Diffindo."

 _The girl_ — _Sarah, he kept reminding himself_ — _flinched back at his voice and gasped as she grabbed the steadily streaming wound on her shoulder._

 _"Did that hurt?" Draco asked impatiently. He was getting increasingly nervous as time went on._

 _"N-no," Sarah stammered, confused. "What did you do to me?"_

 _Nodding once again, Draco pivoted on his heel and began his trek back up the stairs_ — _after closing and locking the metal door, of course._

 _He heard the brunette scramble to her feet and run to the bars of her cell, "W-wait!" She called up to him, but he paid her no heed. His good deed for the day_ — _or maybe the decade_ — _was done and like hell was he going to stick around to explain things. She could figure it out for herself._

 _Once he gets to the top of the stairs he pauses for a moment to make sure the silencing charm is still in effect_ — _it is_ — _and slips out of the door quietly. Pettigrew is standing just a few paces in front of him staring vacantly down the corridor, probably lost in thought._

 _"Are you wondering what exactly you're going to do when the Dark Lord realizes how absolutely useless you are, Wormtail?" Draco asked with a smirk._

 _Peter startled and whipped around. When he registered what the blonde had said he scowled. "Haha. Very funny."_

 _"I'm done here," Draco remarked as he pushed past to walk back up to his rooms for the night._

 _"Alright," Peter acknowledged. "I hope you had fun," he joked._

 _Draco looked back with a sadistic grin and cocked his head, "Oh, I did."_

 **-(End Flashback)-**

* * *

Draco scoffed as he did an abrupt about face, "Doing that was hardly noble. I only did it to practice my leglimency. I just decided to use it to do something decent rather than ransack someone's brain just to get experience. It just as easily could have scrambled her brain if I weren't as precise as I was."

Harry shook his head, "Don't sell yourself short, Malfoy. There are many, many others who wouldn't have done what you did. And you were so precise _because_ you didn't want to mess up her brain. I'm not saying it makes up for all of your actions, not in the least, but you aren't nearly as bad as you're trying to make yourself out to be. You'll do just fine in this world. And who knows! Worst case scenario, if you slack off—or die—there and don't interfere, the prophecy child may win anyway!" The Gryffindor exclaimed with a smile. The kind of smile that said 'I know something you don't!'

"Whatever, Pothead," the blonde muttered petulantly. "If you plan on watching me while I'm there I guess we'll see. Just don't watch me while I shit or bathe or anything. I mean it, Potter! That would be revolting!" Draco demanded with a pointed finger, as if he thought Harry might have already done such a thing.

Harry scrunched up his nose and glanced at Draco incredulously. "Don't be a git! I wouldn't do such a thing! I'm not into the male persuasion," he made wavy motions over his sides to demonstrate the curves of the female form, "and even if I were I certainly wouldn't be looking at _your_ pasty arse! Besides—"

"How do you know my arse is pasty?!" Draco interrupted accusingly before blushing, realizing exactly what he had said. "W-wait—" he back-tracked, but Harry was already on his hands and knees laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face.

Harry clutched his stomach with one hand. "G-good to know, Malfoy!" He chortled teasingly.

"S-Shut up, Four Eyes!" Draco defended and crossed his arms, still mortified by his slip.

The dark haired teen finally managed to catch his breath enough to wipe his eyes and sit back on his thighs. "Wow, because I've never heard _that_ one before," Harry rolled his eyes.

With an impatient huff Draco interjected, "Can we please get back to the matter at hand?"

Standing to feet Harry reminded him with a smirk, "You started that whole conversation. Don't blame me."

" _Anyway_ , when are we getting this show on the road then?" Draco asked, ignoring Harry's last comment pointedly.

The Master of Death shrugged, "Whenever you're ready. You really are taking this rather well, Malfoy. I know we didn't get on well, but I'm glad we got to have a semi-friendly conversation beforehand."

"I just died, Potter. I hardly wanted to fight after such an event," Draco assured. "Besides, you ended the war, because of your friends—and you by extension—my family got lenient sentencing, _and_ my aunt killed you for Merlin's sake. And now you're stuck in some shitty job as the Master of Death. I'm sure you could do without me making a fuss. I'm not a total prat, especially after all I went through during the war. I guess death mellowed me out," he joked.

"I appreciate that, Malfoy. But I really get the feeling that you're stalling for time," Harry observed amusedly.

The Slytherin clucked his tongue, "Of course I'm stalling, Potter! This is the last conversation I get to have with someone from my old life, and I'm about to spend the next few years re-learning my basic bodily functions! I'm stalling as long as I bloody well can!" Draco said, visibly frustrated.

Harry frowned, "Yes, I'm sure that won't be very fun. You may find that you need it though."

" _Why_ are you so bloody vague?! Is that a part of the whole 'Master of Death' thing?" Draco asked gustily.

With a chuckle Harry responded, "No, what I meant is that from what I understand they have different language and customs there. You may need those years to grow accustomed to them, and try to avoid making your displacement too obvious." Harry rubbed his neck apologetically.

With narrowed eyes the blonde questioned, "So why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"Heh, well... it slipped my mind?" Harry attempted to deflect.

Draco harrumphed, "You're just lucky we're already dead, Potter. I finally learned that bat-bogey hex that Weaslette was so partial to."

Harry looked at his feet. "I'm so lucky I was never subjected to that...," he muttered to himself. "Are you about done stalling then, Malfoy?" The Gryffindor needled. "I do have a job to get back to, and you wouldn't believe the back-log that happens if I just procrastinate for the shortest amount of time! I'll probably be a week behind just from this whole conversation!" Harry practically whined as he pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"If you're that desperate to get rid of me, Potter, I can do nothing but oblige," Draco drawled. "Don't worry about me, I'm just being sent to an entirely _different universe_ where I don't know _anyone._ Where they don't even _speak my language_. Oh, and don't forget about the future conflicts I'll be involved in! Merlin forbid that the Boy-Who-Lived be behind on his work by _one week_ ," he continued woefully.

"Alright, alright, sorry. But you seriously do have to get going soon. I've been told that the best person for you to be born to is at the perfect point in her pregnancy. If we don't want to miss this window you need to go," Harry explained seriously. "I don't doubt that you can turn around in this life, Malfoy. Even if you make mistakes, you can always change for the better. Everyone can." He offered his hand out to Draco. "I know I snubbed you on the train first year, but you came off as a total prat. No surprise there—," Harry smirked, "—but before it's too late let's shake on it. Friends?"

Draco stared at the hand, partially stunned, partially amused. He grabbed the outstretched hand and gave it a firm shake. "Not that it will make a difference now, but yes. Friends," Draco agreed, with a smirk on his face in return.

Harry smiled brightly. "I'm glad we got that cleared up! It's time for you to go now, Draco," Harry said, as if he hadn't just called Draco his first name for the first time ever, "Have a good one. I'll be watching your pasty ass!" He gave a playful wink.

"Wait a second! I don't actually have a—"

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, so this is going to be my first substantial fic. I'm torn between hating every word I wrote, hiding under the bed terrified that everyone on this site will lambaste me, and telling myself I'm an awesome writer. Let me first thank you for reading the chapter despite the length! (I promise the flashback is ground work for things relevant in the future of this fic.) And forgive me for this long ass, rambling author's note I'm about to subject you to.**

 **I've been obsessed with all of the Naruto SI/OC fics for months now, and I've been thinking about writing one for a long while. I don't remember how I came up with the idea of Draco coming here, but I remember liking the idea of starting with someone who's personality is already developed so that I didn't have to start from scratch** **—** **my creativity is extremely low and I'm super lazy. I've also read quite a few HP/Naruto crossovers which have helped inspire this as well (** ** _The Unbound Soul_** **by and** ** _Chasing Shadows_** **by silencia20 are some examples, read that shit!).**

 **I expect that this fic will be quite long, probably** ** _at least_** **150k... This is the only chapter I have written thus far, but I plan on writing at least three more chapters before posting the second chapter. That way I'll have a few weeks buffer to work on the later chapters. So be prepared to wait a while before a second update.**

 **Be fore-warned, I have a three-year-old who takes up all of my time. So this is definitely a secondary thing that I usually only work on while he's sleeping. I don't promise to finish (though I obviously plan to), but I do promise that if I do abandon it I will AT THE VERY LEAST outline the rest of the fic so that you know what would have happened. More likely I would let someone adopt it and give them all my notes** **—** **but like I said, I don't plan to abandon it (but who starts a fic thinking they will?).**

 **I'm rating it mature for explicit content and language. Typical canon violence, and possibly a bit worse violence/gore. No sex scenes, or if there are they will be vague, sorry to disappoint! So far in my outline I DO NOT have a romance planned, though I'm totally up to it. As much as I love yaoi, I tend to stick with het pairings in this fandom (Naruto). More than likely if there is romance in this fic Draco will end up with a girl unless an overwhelming majority of my (hopefully) future followers want him with a guy (which I doubt).**

 **Be patient and be kind, please. Writing does not come naturally to me and you have no idea how much I nitpicked this chapter before having the courage to post it .**

 **But on the flip side, since this is my first fic feel free to criticize, in a constructive manner if you don't mind.**

 **Shout out to my amazing beta and close friend, Xarioth! Jumping out of his comfort zone to help me out and toss around fic ideas with me! You're the best, love!**

 **Ja ne!**

 **-Fortheloveofb**


	2. Chapter 1

**Posted 07/23/2016**

 **Disclaimer: These two amazing pieces of work totally don't belong to me~**

 **Warnings for this chapter: Canon typical violence, slightly graphic violence**

 **Self-beta'd**

 **Chapter 1**

The woman who Draco was being reborn to was about five months along when he found his soul deposited in the up-until-then soulless fetus. When Draco looks back on the next four months, all he can remember is the vague feeling of floating, being enclosed, and the sound of his mother's steady heartbeat. He is, in fact, very happy that he wasn't stuck in there with his teenage conscience bored out of his still-forming skull. No, his first true memory came at the end of those four months when he was about to be born.

His mind seemed to snap into clarity when he felt immense pressure being exuded on his new, tiny body. Draco was panicking, _'What's happening?!_ ' he wondered internally, not that he could speak even if he wanted to. The former Slytherin opened his eyes, but everything was dark. He then attempted to flail, but it felt almost as if he were apparating—being squeezed through a too-small tube—except that he was surrounded by warmth and there was sound, it was just muted. It also appeared that he had no need to breathe at the present. After about ten minutes, he felt the top of his head beginning to exit the cramped area. Not even three minutes after that, and he was all the way out. That entire ordeal had drained him, and when the cold of the air hit his bodily-fluid-covered skin he did exactly what his instincts told him to—he took his first breath of oxygen in his new body and screamed.

His fatigue from the tunnel affair and screaming ensured that he quieted quickly. Taking stock of his situation it finally hit him, ' _I just experienced my own birth_ ,' he thought in both awed wonder and disgust. He peered around with his slitted eyes, but quickly discovered he may as well have been blind. The brightness of the room, on top of the only vague blobs he could make out, proved to irritate him more than anything. Already the limitations of his body were vexing his short patience. Draco decided to rely on his ears instead of his eyes, but once again realized that his ears wouldn't be of much help. Those around him were speaking a completely foreign language, it sounded similar to a language his father was familiar with from his dealings with Japanese wizards in the past. Now, if he were in his old world and had his hawthorn wand in his hand, he could easily remedy this issue with a translation charm, but that's not the case. He's going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. Which is going to be a long-term learning process that Draco does not feel like thinking about right now. Before he could observe much else his eyelids began drooping against his will. He didn't even take notice of the woman who held him as she rocked her newly born son into an untroubled sleep.

* * *

 **(One week later)**

Draco's entire first week of life was spent in a perpetual state of sleepiness, hunger, and cold. If he wasn't sleeping he was eating, if he wasn't eating he was sleeping, and if he wasn't being held by either of his new parents then he was cold and in need of comfort. Draco wasn't used to this neediness, and he already loved his second mother greatly—though she would never replace the seventeen years he had with his first mother, Narcissa. Apparently even though he was re-born with his teenage mindset intact, his young body's hormones affected him just the same as it would any other baby—Draco couldn't wait for going through puberty again, wonderful!

Also, for some reason, Draco never thought about how utterly repulsive it would be to be an infant with his older mind. He just knows Potter is laughing at him as his new parents clean up his own piss and shit. He can't even control himself from spitting up the milk he consumes! The only things Draco can be grateful for are that his taste buds are new so he doesn't mind the taste or after-taste of milk—even if he has to get it straight from his mother's breasts—and that his parents are certainly attentive so that he doesn't remain in soiled nappies for long. Still, this was even more humiliating than the time Potter found him crying in the bathroom being comforted by Moaning Myrtle—a phantom pain racked his small form as he remembered what came of that encounter.

On the language front he wasn't having much luck. Right now he was trying to identify key words that were repeated often. He was hoping to figure out his name, or the names of his parents. Draco is fairly sure that his mother keeps repeating the word 'kaa-san', but he has no clue what that means—yet. Having no frame of reference for this language meant that he was at a serious disadvantage. The only things he had going for him right now were that since he was an infant he was liable to mess up anyway, and that on the whole adults tended to repeat the same words over and over when teaching young children.

His sight wasn't much better either. Over-stimulation was a very real issue for him. Too much light? He cried. Too little light? He cried. Too much noise? He cried. Too many clothing layers? He cried. You get the picture. Thankfully he had only been exposed to his mother and father. It appeared that he is an only child, so far at least. His mother was very devoted to him and smelt very lovely. Like green tea and milk. He was, embarrassingly enough, very partial to her milk. He blames the stupid baby hormones. His father had only been home a few times so far. He smelt of water and a very natural musk that probably wouldn't have smelt of anything if his nose wasn't so sensitive. So far his father had been very warm and affectionate with him, Draco certainly could never remember a time that Lucius Malfoy ever acted in such a way. It was very nice, he decided. Draco felt oddly guilty that he wasn't the innocent infant child these two people no doubt expected.

* * *

The next few weeks went quite the same. Draco was bored so often he made sure to review his knowledge from his old world, sulk about all of the people he left behind—especially his original parents—and to move his little limbs around as much as possible to gain better motor skills. Oftentimes though, he was swaddled in a blanket in his mothers arms. He paid rapt attention to the strange syllables she spoke. He absently wondered whether or not he would have an accent once he mastered the use of voice and this difficult language.

As those weeks dragged on, his eye sight became clearer and clearer. Blobs became more defined, and color began to seep into the visible world one at a time. It turned out his mother has mostly pink skin, and sunny blonde hair that she always keeps in a high ponytail, where it curls at the ends slightly. Her pupil-less lavender eyes are down-turned, and her nose and lips are fairly thin. In his humble opinion, she is very beautiful. He also noted that she is very lithe and short. She walks in such a way that she never makes a sound, and Draco hates to admit the number of times he has been startled because of it. She seems to find it amusing though, seeing how she giggles every time his body jerks in surprise.

His second mother—for lack of a better name—really does remind him of Narcissa sometimes. The blonde hair, the elegance and grace she walks with, the way she sings softly as if she doesn't want anyone else to hear. It's more comforting than he thought it would be. Although there are similarities, there are more differences than parallels. She is more open in her facial expressions, and much more hands-on. His second mother's disposition is so bright and glowing like the sun, as if she's always happy; while Narcissa's was like more like the moon, cold and beautiful with only occasional moments of showing her caring side. He knows it has only been a bit over a month, but he can tell that this woman will not leave his side unless she is absolutely forced to. Narcissa, while she was a good mother, often left him with the house elves throughout his childhood. She had ministry events to go to, or galas to attend with his father for business and 'charity', sometimes even going to whole other countries. Draco used to resent her for it occasionally, but that all ebbed away during the war, knowing that any day could be their last together.

His second father, on the other hand, has straight white hair grown out to just past his shoulder blades—he usually keeps it wrapped in a knot on the top of his head. His skin was quite a bit darker than his second mother's, but still not what Draco would consider 'tan.' His slanted eyes were an ice blue, very light colored. His nose has a noticeable bump on the bridge, it's obviously been broken—perhaps more than once—before being set correctly. All his features were set on a heart shaped face with a very distinct widow's peak, and a strange elongated diamond-shaped birthmark on the left side of his face, where his sideburns would have been; Draco found his whole appearance rather bizarre—he emphatically hoped he developed more of his second mother's features than his second father's. The man was an average height, and had well-defined, solid muscles, but nothing too extreme. His shoulder's weren't broad or narrow, just normal, and the only other thing really worth mentioning was that it appeared that the tip of his right ear was cut off. Honestly, he isn't sure he wants to hear that story.

As he had noted before, his father was very kind and affectionate with Draco. He held him tenderly, and obviously thought his second mother hung the moon in the night sky. Draco had spit up once or twice from how disgustingly in love they were. He often made his second mother some sort of compact rice balls before heading off to do whatever he did for work, and if he came in late at night he would slide open the door to Draco's room silently to kiss his forehead, and stroke his face once or twice before going to join his wife in sleep. Occasionally he would even bring Draco in to sleep in between the two for a single night, despite his second mother's tired objections. He couldn't be farther from the aloof Lucius Malfoy, who was more of an ideal to him than a parental figure.

Though he missed his old world, Draco found himself falling into this easy life quickly.

* * *

During this time about two other people came by to see them while his father was, presumably, at work. The first was a strangely dressed doctor. She was very young and she had on what appeared to be some kind of athletic gear with a short apron over it. Draco found this rather unprofessional, but perhaps she was a family friend, or the only doctor available to them.

His mother and the girl talked animatedly back and forth while his mother gestured to him occasionally. Draco was wiggling wildly on the floor of mats which were made of woven straw, attempting to roll over so he could see a bit better. He gave up trying to listen to them as he became more frustrated that he still could not understand their conversation, or roll over for that matter, and decided to observe what he could see of the room instead.

Every room he had been in thus far had a distinctly Eastern influence, and this one was no exception. The ceiling seemed to be thatched from what he could tell—Draco is hardly an expert at such things—and the walls were the same as throughout the rest of the small house. There were opaque screens that his parents could open and close to make a room larger or smaller, though they were usually only closed when he was sleeping, and behind the young girl was an alcove with a vase of flowers in it. There was what appeared to be a scroll on the wall as well, Draco found it very odd. It also looked like there was a counter of some sort beside the alcove, but Draco couldn't turn his head enough to see it.

Toward the outer walls of the house there were latticed walls made of what looked to be paper. There was light that filtered in from them to brighten the room, but Draco couldn't help but think it was a bit unsafe. Couldn't anyone break in? Or do they have magic similar to wards? It's something he will have to look into when he's older.

Next to him his mother and the guest were sitting on opposite sides of a low table with their thighs over their calves atop fairly thin cushions. The position looked rather uncomfortable to him, but he had seen his mother and father sitting this way many times when they ate together.

After what seemed like ages, the two came closer to him.

"Kon'nichiwa, Ryuu-chan!" The young girl said, with a big grin on her tawny-colored face.

'There!' Draco thought to himself, ' _That's my name! Ryuu-chan!_ ' Indeed, it wasn't the first time he had heard his mother and father say the very same thing to him, but he had never known what it meant. This girl was telling him hello—he knew that much Japanese at the very least, from Lucius's dealings with foreign dignitaries—and then what Draco assumed was his name. Ryuu-chan. It was very strange, he'll admit, but honestly it was nice to finally learn something from all the time he had spent immersing himself in the language. Now it felt less like he was adrift at sea, and more like he was holding onto a broken plank at sea—not much better, but tangible progress.

Draco wiggled a bit more and ended up spitting up on himself. ' _Oh, great first impression. Lovely._ '

The girl laughed then began stretching his limbs every which way, and doing other various things to judge the levels of his health. Afterwards, Draco was quite surprised when the girl held her hand over his chest and it began to glow an eerie green, reminiscent of the ' _avada kedavra_ ' curse. Naturally, being reminded of his previous death, Draco began to wiggle even more vigorously as he started to wail. The girl's smile fell as she retracted her hand nervously before looking to his mother. The blonde woman was frowning slightly, and picked him up to cradle him and calm him down.

He settled quickly when he noted that his mother had not been concerned by the green light. Once Draco had calmed down he took a moment to remember that Harry had told him this world had a different kind of magic. Up until now he had not seen anything to indicate such a thing and, though he shouldn't, he found himself surprised by the fact that no focus was needed to use these powers.

While Draco was in his own thoughts, the two women had been talking a bit more. After they saw he was no longer upset the younger girl brought her hands up once more, closer to his feet this time so that he was less likely to be frightened by it, and slowly brought them up to place them on his chest. It was a rather pleasant feeling, much like feeling the ebb and flow of waves against your legs in shallow water. He could feel the magic going in and out of his body. He found it much different than at home. There, healing spells were rather straight forward, and the only thing you could really feel was the uncomfortable sensation of your body being put to rights, rather than the actual magic itself.

The green light faded after a minute or so, and by the small smile the doctor gave his mother, he assumed his body was in tip-top shape. After a few more minutes of the two speaking rapidly to each other in unintelligible conversation, she finally left the two alone.

* * *

Not too many days later a second visitor arrived, a man this time. By the familiar greeting and the hug he gave Draco's mother, Draco guessed that they were close, perhaps even related or in-laws. The man was fairly pale with ocean blue eyes and chestnut brown hair, he was also extremely compact. He was shorter than average, but with very large muscles that made for an intimidating figure, despite his short stature. Or maybe it just appeared that way to Draco, after all he would fit comfortably on the man's forearm with a bit extra room to spare. It was unnerving to Draco for everyone to be so much larger than him, he felt rather defenseless honestly. He knew there was no reason to worry seriously while his parents were around though. He had the feeling his mother would be a terrifying sight if someone ever threatened Draco—or Ryuu-chan, rather.

They sat across from each other much like his mother did with the medic, the man also sat in front of the alcove. The only difference was that his mother was holding Draco across her body this time, facing him in toward her chest. He also noticed his name was mentioned quite a few times, as well as what Draco thought was the man's name, 'Kino'. As they continued talking Draco picked out _a few_ recognizable words, but he still had no idea of their meanings. They were just talking too fast to get much out of the conversation.

About ten minutes later, his mother shifted him around to where he faced towards the man, tucked against her side with his head propped in the crux of her elbow. The blue-eyed man was smiling at him with his eyes shut and Draco noticed at strange headband around his forehead, it had three diagonal, parallel lines in the middle of a metal plate, which was attached to a black cloth. Draco had noticed his father wearing something similar every time he left, and come to think of it the healer had had one around her upper arm as well—he'd have to look into the headbands more when he could. The man began talking to him as 'Ryuu-chan', and reached out to hand him a strange, wooden four-pointed star with a hole in the middle. He grabbed it and brought it to his mouth instinctively to chew on it. His gums had been aching as of late, and this wooden toy was the perfect thing to alleviate some of the pressure.

His mother laughed lightly and patted his head fondly while speaking as the man chuckled lowly himself. They continued on for quite some time, and before he knew it Draco found himself drifting off to sleep, and by the time he woke up, the man was gone.

* * *

About four months later found Draco able to roll over, sit up, and retaining a considerably larger vocabulary. Even though he couldn't understand a majority of the words, he could usually understand the gist of things if one of his parents were talking to him specifically since they tended to use exaggerated gestures and repeat themselves often. He discovered that 'kaa-san' means mother, and that 'tou-san' is father. His name is 'Ryuu', not 'Ryuu-chan'. 'Chan' is apparently a suffix of some sort. The muscley man from before comes over often bearing gifts and to babysit when his mother goes grocery shopping—with a bit of speculative guesswork, Draco suspects that he is kaa-san's brother. Draco's 'Kino-oji-san'.

At the moment, Draco is sitting on the floor of tatami mats, the woven straw mats he had noted before, chewing on his favorite toy shuriken—his father had told them what they were called. His mother was at the kitchenette in the corner preparing some kind of raw fish. He noticed that they tend to have much smaller servings here, with lots of rice and fish. He's very curious to try some of the food native to this place, but he isn't old enough to eat solid food yet, so he's stuck with breast milk for another month or two.

Draco is fairly sure that his father will be home tonight after being away for a bit over a week. Every time he came back from long assignments in his job, he always looked unkempt and battered. Draco noticed he usually took a pack with him, which Draco knew contained a bedroll in it. He can only guess that people travel on foot here, and that things like apparition and port-keys aren't something the magic of this universe is capable of. Draco hopes that if his magic is held in the soul like Potter had said, that he can at the very least still apparate; Draco had never learned how to make a port-key. It was a bit advanced magic for a seventeen-year-old who hadn't even gone to his seventh year at Hogwarts.

He was brought out of his musings as his father walks in the door, looking grim. His mother turned around with a smitten grin at the sound, but her smile quickly falls when she sees her husband's countenance. He takes off his open-toed sandals in the sunk in area around the door, places his pack next to them and walks over to begin a rapid conversation with his mother. As his mother's eyes widen in disbelief and dismay, Draco sorely wishes he could understand what the two were talking about—especially after they both glace over at him with worried expressions. If only he could read their minds!

Wait.

Draco lost balance of his body and fell over as an idea came over him. How had he not thought of it before?! He felt like a bloody idiot. Could he? Could he use legilimency at this age? Magic usually didn't manifest this young, but if his magic was a part of his soul, could he access it now intentionally since his soul was technically seventeen...?

Both of his parents had turned to him when he fell, but continued on when he didn't make a fuss.

Draco rolled onto his stomach, pushed up on his hands and knees, and began rocking back and forth. He was going to attempt to crawl toward them, he had to test this theory, but it turned out he didn't have to go to them. Once his mother saw him trying to crawl, they put a hold on their conversation to encourage him—five months is probably a bit early for normal babies to crawl, but 'Ryuu' was hardly a normal baby, and he had been working on his mobility for ages. On one of his rocks forward, he quickly threw his right hand out as fast as he could before his left arm gave out from supporting his weight, and had a considerably easier time bringing his left knee forward. He repeated the process with his left hand and right knee, much to his parents' delight. After the third time, Draco's arm gave out and his nose smashed into the floor. Without his conscious permission, Draco began screaming bloody murder after the pain registered in his brain.

Though his eyes were blurred with tears, when his father quickly scooped him up to calm him down, he looked directly into his tou-san's eyes and took advantage of this opportunity.

' _Legilimens_ ,' Draco incanted internally in concentration.

When he would forego his wand to perform legilimency, he would have to mentally search out his magic to mold it into what he liked to think of as a 'mental lance' to throw into his quarry's mind—well, that was his mental picture of it anyway. However, this time he found it difficult to locate his magic... If he had used his occlumency and meditated before trying this experiment—which now that he's thinking about it, he should have—he probably would have been able to find his magic much more easily. After searching for quite a few moments, he finally found it buried deeper than it ever had been before, except it felt exceptionally dense. He isn't sure if it's because of the different dimension, or his body's age, or if perhaps this body was just built a bit differently, but it was very different from before. After a few more attempts to grasp the compact energy, it kept continually slipping from his mental grasp. Becoming disgruntled with his inability to gain purchase on the magic, his tears dried up to be replaced with a pout that was bordering on a scowl (as much as an infant can scowl anyway).

Draco began squirming in his father's embrace, completely ignoring the white haired man's concerned expression. He knew he was being petty, but he was getting increasingly irritated at his lack of progress and limited movement—and now he was having difficulty with his magic too? In his old world he would no doubt be having accidental magic from the amount of frustration he was itching to get out of his system. Luckily, Draco highly doubts he will have any bouts of accidental magic this time around. Young children have to go through a process to learn how to express themselves and their emotions, they have no idea how to handle them. It's a learning curve that even most adults have issues with. Although, since Draco has a teenage mind, he mostly has that department covered—even if the way Draco used to express himself wasn't exactly moral or healthy—no matter that his hormones are seriously undermining his mostly-developed emotional maturity. Of course, he can't say anything with 100% certainty, but he feels confident enough.

His father put him down after decided he hadn't been severely injured by his nose dive. Draco refrains himself from attempting to read his parents' minds for a second time, or for the near future, until such a time that he is more practiced and familiar with his magic once again.

* * *

The next seven months flew by in a flurry of learning, and near-constant physical improvement—including potty training himself, thankfully. He began cutting teeth at six months, and shortly after was introduced to a solid food diet that was still supplemented with milk, but mostly consisted of rice until he had a few more teeth. Then, by the time he hit eight months he was toddling around with nary a fall, and as of today, his first birthday—August 13th—he is able to run without his legs buckling beneath him, eat quite a few types of food, and can speak going on twenty words with new ones coming along every day.

His vocabulary had expanded exponentially thanks to his baby brain's sponge-like memorization, combined with his teenage intellect, and though syntax and conjugation often confused him, he had a much easier time of translating his parent's conversations. He discovered that the conversation he had observed his parents having when he was five-months-old would be an on going problem for their family for years to come. He lived in a country called Yu no Kuni, something that roughly translated to 'Land of Hot Water' in English, and his father had been a soldier of sorts for them. He calls himself a 'shinobi'. Apparently he had been laid off, and the country was ceasing the need for soldiers to make room for tourism. Even Draco felt slightly disgusted at the sentiment. He can't imagine there being no aurors back in his word, _especially_ if there was to be a lot of tourism. Draco can only imagine if there weren't aurors constantly patrolling the country with all of the foreign wizards that poured in during the Quidditch World Cup... Okay, well maybe that isn't the best example considering what happened after the cup, but the wizards would have been much more conspicuous if the aurors hadn't been as alert to people potentially breaking the statute of secrecy _leading up to_ the world cup.

From what Ryuu has gathered, this entire continent has multiple countries, and that almost all of them have a standing army of these 'shinobi'. There are quite a few other things he has heard, but that he can't translate because he is fairly sure some of the terminology is unique to this culture. Something he has figured out is that the people who have 'magic' here don't hide it from muggles. The civilians all know about them, and it's something that honestly blows his mind. If anyone would have asked Draco if he thought the wizarding world could live peacefully alongside muggles he would have given them a resounding no. Apparently it had always been this way though, but he may be missing a part of the picture since all of his information is what he has garnered through his parents' conversations—both with each other, and the few guests they occasionally hosted—since he has yet to leave the general vicinity of his home, which is a bit isolated.

Anyway, his father was now leaving for even longer periods than he had been before. Currently he has been away for almost two months. He's had to become something of a mercenary in order to get enough money for the family to live off of. Which causes Draco slight discomfort, what exactly is he doing to make money out there? Being a mercenary doesn't sound like a very noble career for his sappy father.

Despite the hardships he and his new parents were facing, Ryuu is extremely excited for today. His kaa-san, who he now knows is named Hisa Yamakawa, is taking him into the village for the very first time. He's honestly ecstatic to be able to try some village fare. He has acquired a taste for the Eastern cuisine since he started eating solid food—even though he had mostly been limited to rice, fried rice, curry rice (surprisingly enough—his mother believes in getting him used to heavy spices), chazuke, and kayu, along with a few bites of grilled meats, fruits, and vegetables here and there. But his diet mostly consisted of rice cooked in various ways. He really preferred them to the heavy food of Britain, but maybe that just has to do with his new taste buds—he does miss eating meat regularly though. Ryuu is hoping to be able to try some yakitori, tempura (meat or vegetables, he doesn't care as long as it's _fried_ ), gyoza, or dango while he's out today. Well, he knows he will at least get to try dango. His mother promised him, and he was looking forward to his first sweet since before he was in Azkaban. She had made some of these dishes at home before, but according to her, he was just too young to eat them at the time. Honestly, he thinks she just wanted to wait to treat him until he could eat from the food vendors on his first trip to the village proper.

Ryuu wiggled out from under his covers as the barest amount of sunlight could be seen through his small, open shoji windows. There was no other sounds in the house, so he knew his mother was not yet up and about. He shimmied into a loose pair of grey pants with ties that clinched them at the bottom, and a deep green tunic. Ryuu quickly made his way down the short hallway to his mother's bedroom, where he opened the door with a flourish, and didn't waste any time diving on top of her.

"Ohayo, kaa-san!" Ryuu chirped. His mother was already awake, she always woke up from the lightest of sounds; so even though he had woken up first, Ryuu was sure she had woken up practically as soon as he had rolled off of his futon.

"Ohayo, Ryuu-chan," his mother replied in a tired sort of voice. She was far from a morning person, as the tangled mass of hair on her head clearly showed. She groaned and rolled on top of her son as much as she could with the blankets that separated them.

Draco couldn't help but giggle just a bit. "Kaa-san, kaa-san! Up!" He pushed at her body, and she lifted herself up slightly to allow him to crawl out from under her. He made his way up to be level with her head and just stared at her.

Her eyelids opened slightly as she cut her eyes at him, "Ugh. It's so creepy when you do that,"—Draco resisted the urge to cackle, but figured his mother wouldn't appreciate that—, "Fine, but only because I love you... and it's your birthday." She added. Suddenly, she sat up straight and practically tackled him as she gasped, "It's your birthday! Happy birthday, Ryuu-chan!"

Ryuu accepted the physical affection with as much grace as a one-year-old could muster and whined, "Breakfast, and market! Kaa-san promise!"

His mother rolled her eyes at his typical petulance. It seemed to her that her son was born spoiled. "Promised," she corrected him. "After breakfast then. They're probably only just now setting up their stalls, there's plenty of time to explore today," she ruffled his hair, "I'll fix some food. Go put your futon away; don't think I didn't notice you skipping your morning routine! Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you can't do your one daily chore!" Hisa scolded lightly.

Draco turned away and scowled. As much as he loved his mother, he would never get used to being treated as a child again. Especially since he never had to do a single chore in his first life—that's what house elves were for. The only thing he ever did for himself that could be considered a 'chore' was polishing and maintaining his Nimbus 2001, but that was only because he enjoyed it and didn't trust the elves to do it properly. He kept all of these thoughts to himself though as he hung his head in feigned shame with a murmured 'sorry, kaa-san' as he ran back to his room.

* * *

After a light breakfast Ryuu and Hisa pull on their shoes and set off for the village, which was about a thirty minute walk away for a fit adult—probably an hour for a toddler like him. He swallows his, by now practically nil, pride as his mother carries him to town so that he won't get tired too quickly. She's wearing her hair in it's usual high ponytail, and a grass-green summer yukata to match his tunic. He hasn't seen his own appearance in this world yet, but he likes to imagine they make quite a lovely sight.

The walk was very calm; they traveled down a dirt road with quite a few trees on the either side. As they got closer to the village, Ryuu heard the roar of a river growing ever louder until eventually it was right next to the path. He spent the rest of the walk watching the river until it meandered away from the road, and pestered his mother by pointing and loudly yelling the name of objects in her ear.

He found it amusing when she would flinch slightly at his boisterous voice, it was revenge for all the times she had snuck up on him. Not to mention, probably a little bit of misdirected anger which he was projecting on his mother. It was very frustrating being so helpless, with no one he knows, no way to talk articulately, learning a completely different language, and being stuck with this new reality every day. He knew that he wasn't being fair, and he loves her dearly, but he had to get some release before he inevitably exploded in a way that just wasn't normal for a child his age. He knew he didn't always have the most convincing baby act, but he truly tried to be the child they obviously wanted. He didn't want to be rejected by the only people he has to rely on in this strange world where he knows no one, and nothing. Aside from the fact that he does sincerely love his second family, it just wouldn't be wise to give up the life style he has right now where he can learn in a fairly safe environment, and where he is completely provided for. Additionally, he's still spoiled as hell.

As they grew closer to the village he began to see the tops of buildings, as well as an incomplete wall that was much farther away from their direction. Once they were directly in front of the area the first thing he noticed were how many civilian construction workers there were. He glanced toward the wall farther down the way, and saw that they were _deconstructing_ it, not building it. There was even more construction going on once they walked through what he supposes was the main gate. All around them new buildings were in various stages of construction. Draco was surprised by how different the town looked compared to his family's home. It seemed very... muggle, for lack of a better word. There were poles with connected wires, and the some of the newer building were exceedingly tall and extravagant; reminiscent of some of the buildings he had seen in muggle London, but not quite as tall. He could tell that these new features were being added for the 'tourism' in Yu no Kuni.

His home by comparison was extremely traditional. He had, apparently wrongly, assumed that most of the continent was much the same. It was rather stupid of him now that he thought about it.

After looking around for the better part of five minutes, he noticed his mother watching him fondly with a smile upon her face. He gave her a small grin in return, and she finally placed him on the ground to walk next to her. Surprisingly, she didn't make him hold her hand as long as he stayed within a few feet of her.

As they walked toward the market district, his mother took the time to tell him what all the construction was about—more to fill the silence than her actually expecting him to understand what she was saying. Which was good, because a lot of the terminology still went over his head. What he gathered was that the village was taking advantage of the natural hot springs to boost tourism, so they are having resorts and other attractions built to bring in more new revenue. The bath houses—which he finds a very uncomfortable idea—are located towards the outskirts, and the resorts, hotels, restaurants, and other various tourist traps are being built throughout the rest. Not only are they building, but they're also renovating buildings that were originally used for shinobi business. His mother's tone told him she was bitter about how quickly the country was moving on from their former shinobis' employment.

Once they reached the market, Hisa picked him up once more so that he could see in the food stalls. They spent the next two hours sharing various foods with each other, he could tell she had been saving up their ryo for months just so she could splurge on him today. They ate more food in one morning than the two of them usually ate during all three meals put together! He found that he was incredibly partial to yakitori, gyoza, and a few other things he had never seen his mother make before like okonomiyaki—which is similar to a pancake, except with meat and vegetables and such; he and his mother shared a beef one with vegetables and nori. They also had ikayaki, which appears to be just grilled squid on a stick, and is surprisingly tasty. Though, he can't help but feel like he is eating the giant squid's grandchildren or something. Also, yakisoba, which is a specific type of noodles with pork in a sweet sauce.

They tasted quite a few desserts that he liked too, dango of course. Taiyaki, which is some sort of cake with filling in it that is shaped like a fish for some reason. It was one of the few things that he and his mother each got an individual serving of. He chose one filled with cheese, and Hisa had one filled with chocolate. She let him try hers, even though it was obviously one of her favorites by the way she closed her eyes and savored every bite she took. She probably didn't get the opportunity to eat it all that often. They also had a dessert called anmitsu which was a jelly with different fruit topping, some type of bean paste called anko, and a black syrupy substance on top. Hisa bought some anpan and sweet rice cakes as well, but she told him they were going to take them home for later. He couldn't wait to get his grubby little hands on them.

He didn't like everything he ate though. The tempura he had been so looking forward to was too greasy, and just after he finished his last dessert he ended up throwing up practically everything he had spent the last two hours tasting. At least he could be thankful that he made it to a wastebasket before emptying his stomach, which had been full to bursting. Draco thought the sheer amount of food he had consumed definitely had something to do with it. After that, his mother decided it was time to walk off any food he may have retained and head to the regular shopping district. He thought she probably felt bad about it, but he didn't mind. The memories would always be good ones.

Hisa pointed out many different shops that were very welcoming, with many beautiful handmade items on display. It was almost like his first trip to Diagon Alley when he was three—except without all the magical madness. He wondered why there weren't any since magic is normal here to shinobi and muggles alike.

One of the stores they stopped at was a paper goods store. He says paper goods, because apparently these sort of things are a lot less plentiful here than in his old world. Books are much more expensive, and not as many copies are made. There isn't nearly as much selection as Draco would have had at Flourish and Blotts, but that isn't to say there aren't plenty to choose from. Ryuu quickly perused the shelves, looking for a beginner book for a young child so that he could start learning the written language as well as the spoken. Of course, it was a bit difficult since he couldn't read a single title.

His mother came up behind him and cheerfully steered him to the picture books. One that immediately stood out to him was one was a traditional dragon on the front. Draco had always been fond of dragons, especially considering Narcissa had named him after the dragon constellation in honor of his Black heritage. He picked it up and riffled through the pages, noticing that it did have a few sentences on every page—although it appeared that they went up and down instead of left to right. He could tell learning to write in Japanese would be even more difficult than he had imagined.

When his mother saw which book he had chosen she laughed lightly as she elegantly lowered herself to the floor of the shop.

Hisa pointed to the picture and emphasized, "Ryuu," then pointed to him and said, "Ryuu-chan. You were named after dragons. I don't know why, but it seemed to fit."

Ryuu stared at his mother looking absolutely astonished, but she was still looking at the book. Even without being able to translate every word of that, it was obvious what she was saying. He was named after dragons, again. That couldn't be a coincidence. Despite the oddness of the situation he quickly shook himself as his mother continued to talk. She spent the next few minutes telling him about 'hiragana'—which are the characters used to write in Japanese, apparently—and asking him whether or not he wanted to get the book. When he responded yes, she stood up and told him she would read it to him when they got home.

He really wanted to get the ball rolling, so to speak, with his reading and writing, so as his mother was walking toward the counter, he tugged on her yukata. She looked down at him with one eyebrow lifted in question.

Ryuu pointed at the book and attempted to repeat the word she had said back to her, "Hirganah?"

Her other eyebrow joined her first as her brows lifted in surprise. "You want to learn about hiragana, Ryuu-chan?" She asked. He nodded silently.

"Well, you are quite young, but you are smarter than average children your age. Goodness, I hope we don't have a prodigy on our hands," she said with a worried, far-away look. "Alright, I'll get a beginner's practice book just for you. Okay, Ryuu-chan?"

He smiled at her in gratitude as he let go of her clothing, and she changed course to grab a specific book. Shortly after that, they made their way out of the store, Hisa several hundred ryo lighter, and Ryuu two books wealthier.

* * *

The two spent another hour exploring different shops, but before long Ryuu could feel his body growing wearier with every minute he stayed awake. Damn his under-developed body. He needs his afternoon nap before he starts biting peoples' heads off. His mother must have noticed his mood turning surlier, because she chuckled softly and drew him over to an empty bench right outside of a tea house.

"Sit down for a moment, Ryuu-chan. Let me put up all of our purchases, and then I'll carry you home. You can nap on the way if you'd like."

Hisa's words caused him to frown minutely in confusion. What could she mean by that? He hadn't thought about her having to carry all of their bags home, but she wouldn't be able to carry him and the bags at the same time. However, unless they have shrinking charms or bottomless expansion charms here, he didn't see how she could possibly 'put up' their purchases.

His mother pulled a scroll from somewhere on her person—no really, where could that have possibly come from?—and unrolled it. Seeing the foreign scheme on the paper he leaned forward in intrigue, his sleepiness momentarily forgotten. Seeing her son's interest, Hisa's lip twitched.

She pointed at the strange conflagration on the paper, "You see this?" Ryuu nodded, "This is a sealing array. It uses chakra, which is a mixture of our spiritual and physical energy, to 'charge' it. I'm no expert on such things though, I only bought this one. They're very handy for times like these. Watch."

She placed the open scroll on the bench next to him and all of their purchases on top of it, with the 'sealing array' in the center. Extending the fore- and middle-fingers of both of her hands, she used them to make a cross. There was a pulse of something similar to magic, and with a puff of smoke the items were gone. He looked around, but no one on the street seemed to be looking or making a big deal about such an occurrence at all.

Chakra. That was what his mother had called it. The magic of this world is called chakra. He had felt it when she used it, very different from magic—you couldn't just feel magic come from a person like that unless it was coming off of a combat spell or something of that mature. Not from the person though, no, never the person. It always felt in his old world that people equated their magic to their wands, not themselves. A wizard without a wand was useless. Here though, you could feel someone using this 'chakra'. It was nice to finally have a name to call it. He would make sure to question both of his parents more thoroughly about chakra soon.

His pondering was interrupted as Hisa plucked him off the bench and deftly situated him on her hip. The scroll was no where to be found, but he decided not to venture further into thinking about just where she might be keeping it.

He once again returned to his ruminations when his mother began walking, but when she shifted him so that his body was cushioned on her chest with one arm supporting him beneath his butt and legs, and one across his back stroking the back of his head with his face tucked against her shoulder, Ryuu was out like a light within seconds.

* * *

Ryuu woke up abruptly as his mother let out an exclamation of surprise and jumped back with practiced dexterity. Seconds later he heard many clatters and thumps behind him. She shifted him back to her hip so that she would have one hand free, and brought a type of knife his uncle Kino had called a 'kunai' out from somewhere—later he would once again question where the hell she was keeping these things—and got into what he assumed was a defensive position. When he surveyed the area his mother had just moved from, he found the ground was littered with at least twenty projectile weapons that would have seriously injured both of them, if the blonde woman had not moved at the last moment.

His eyes were roving about looking for the person who threw them, but he hadn't particularly needed to as a hostile presence made itself known at that moment. It was a fit light-skinned man with straw colored hair, and narrowed chocolate eyes. There's a feeling pressing down on his senses unlike anything he's ever felt, even Voldemort hadn't exuded such a feeling of danger—not that the man was actually more menacing, it just feels like it at the moment. He wasn't particularly intimidating on his own, but combined with his weapons, the dangerous feeling that was coming off of him in waves, and Ryuu's ready acknowledgement of his own vulnerable body, the man was downright terrifying. Involuntarily, Ryuu felt his eyes welling with tears.

The man glanced behind him furtively, and attempted to maneuver them between him and the trees he had just come out of, apparently finding a woman with a toddler much less of a threat than whatever it was that was in the forest, despite the fact that she was wielding a weapon.

Hisa Yamakawa was having none of that though.

As the man charged toward them ready for combat, his mother threw her kunai at him. Had he not shifted out of the way it would have gone into his left eye-socket. She took his moment of distraction to use her now free hands to make a few signs with her fingers. There was a feeling of great acceleration and his eye sight was completely obscured by blurry landscape until he was in a completely different position on the dirt road than before. He could see the man—who was right about where they would have been if his mother hadn't moved when she did, again. How did they get all the way over here though? He's at least smart enough to recognize the fact that she's avoiding direct confrontation since he would be a liability in a fight. She must have at least basic training with this 'chakra' if she can do this much even though he had never seen any sign of such a thing before today.

They were now about five hundred feet down the path, presumably in the direction they had been heading before the man appeared. He was glaring at them, but his desperate eyes looked out of place in his angry countenance. Obviously he did not expect her to show such resistance, but at the moment he was paying more attention to the trees he had come out from originally.

Ryuu saw why shortly after when five figures materialized on the branches of the trees in the area surrounding the man. The three on the outer edges were all wearing grey chest plates and black masks. Each mask had two dark grey stripes from top to bottom going over the slitted eye holes, and two white triangular marks that pointed in from each side at cheek level, almost like tiger stripes. The two without masks had dark skin. The younger was more of a mocha color. His skin coloring and exotic face distinctly reminded Draco of his former Slytherin classmate, Blaise Zabini. This teen was bald though, with a white bandanna that had a metal plate on it; similar to his father and uncle's, but the image on it was too far away to see clearly. It was evident that they were not shinobi from Yu no Kuni though. The older man had skin closer to the color of chocolate, and straight white hair. He was also sporting the same metal plate, though on a strip of cloth similar to what he was used to seeing instead of on a bandanna.

The man with the white hair asked, "Is this really what it's come to, Daichi-san? You're so desperate to get away from Kumo that you would attempt to use a mother and child as hostages? Not that that even worked. Who would have thought the very person you would try to use would be Hot Water's very own 'Compassionate Death' herself?" The man couldn't help but laugh as he glanced in their direction. The rogue named Daichi's eyes widened as his head whipped toward her to take in her appearance—she flipped her hair over her shoulder for dramatic effect, with much success. "You didn't even recognize her? That's pathetic. You should be glad we caught up with you when we did, because you're not cut out for the life of a missing nin," he sneered, "You're too weak."

By now Daichi was really sweating, but everyone—even Draco—could tell he wasn't going down without a fight. "Shut up, Tsuruga!" He spat angrily. "I may not be anywhere near the best of the best, but I'd rather die than spend another minute in that village! Stop making me out to be the bad guy!"

The white-haired Tsuruga gave him a mocking smile, "Well, we're not the ones who tried to skewer two people who you had obviously thought were civilians, and one was a child to boot. You're just as terrible at sensing chakra now as you were at the academy, Daichi-san," he taunted as his eyes drifted over the area around the quickly reddening man. "Come back with us and we can talk about your reasons for trying to leave away from listening ears." His eyes darted in their direction, as did Daichi's and the teenage boy's who was yet unnamed. The three masked shinobi—for what else could they be?—kept their focus directly on Daichi. "If you refuse to cooperate I'm afraid we will have to end the liability to our village before it becomes a problem."

Now, a lot of this conversation was going way over Draco's head. Not only was he not yet proficient in the language, but the speed of which they were talking combined with the fact they were a fair distance away both colluded against him from getting any more than a general idea; the man who attacked them was a deserter of a country that was not Yu no Kuni, he left his village, these guys were also from the same village and they knew each other. Something he did know though was that his mother was very tense.

"Kaa-san?" Ryuu whispered.

Her head tilted toward him, but she kept her eyes on the on-going confrontation. "Yes, baby boy?"

"We go? Not looking. No fight," He attempted to get his suggestion across with his limited vocabulary.

She gave him a slight smile, "I'm afraid we can't do that smarty-pants."

"Why?"

"Because sweetie, it's easier to defend yourself from the enemy you know rather than the one you don't. Watch," she points at the trees behind the rogue. He can't see anything in particular, but he continues watching that area, since his mother seems to know something he doesn't.

Daichi and Tsuruga were still talking back and forth—shouting on Daichi's part—when a bolt of lightning came from the trees behind the rogue.

Daichi expertly flipped to the side as the ground where he had been standing was torn to bits. His face was a mixture of murderous and shocked before he closed off his expressions.

Two new figures came out of the trees on the opposite side of the road from the others, both of them also in masks. Draco guessed it was a strategic decision, because as Daichi was temporarily distracted with the new arrivals, the teen shinobi in the bandanna made a series of hand signs so quickly that they were just blurs. Draco found himself awed as discs of lightning streaked toward the blonde haired man. Once again he evaded the attack that was directed at him, but unlike the last lightning attack, this one changed course to follow him.

The man grunted in annoyance and flashed through more hand signs before sweeping his arm out in a wide arc. The discs sputtered out, seemingly of their own accord, until Ryuu saw an air wave hit the trees beyond with such force that there were many deep gashes left in the trunk. During that time the five masked individuals jumped down from the trees and made to engage Daichi in closer quarters, two of them removing blades from sheaths on their backs.

Daichi scowled and took out two kunai. What happened next was a flurry of traded blows and blocks. He appeared to give as good as he got, though it didn't last for long. Even for someone who appeared to be very talented, five to one are just bad odds. If he did manage to escape the first five, there were two more who were staying out of the way for long range support. One of the masked shinobi with a blade—Draco thinks it may be a girl judging by the long red hair—jumped out of the fray with a hand to her side. The teen jumped down from his perch in the tree, and brought a glowing green hand to the area where she was bleeding. So the green glow has to do with healing? It reminded him of the healer he met when he was first born, yet he still couldn't help the instinctive flinch from the reminder of his death.

Not even a full two minutes later, the man fell to one knee with a cry of pain. He had multiple lacerations, but the main one he was suffering from was the deep cut to the outside of his calf. He had been trying to use his legs to get more distance from the four opponents he had left, but had apparently forgotten the second sword wielder as they used their blade to block his spinning kick. Not only did the the man use his sword, but it was also covered in some sort of energy, chakra he assumes, and it may well have been lightning again. It had that look to it.

The four wasted no time taking advantage of his vulnerability, one of them secured his arms, one pulled his head back by the hair, and the man with the blade brought it up to end his life.

Despite Hisa turning his head away from the scene, he distinctly heard the gurgle of the man dying. It wasn't the first time he had dealt with death, and he was sure it would be far from the last what with the knowledge of the prophecy child hanging over his head, but it was the first time he had seen—well, technically heard—murder committed with a hands-on tool. Everything he had seen and taken part in as a Death Eater had always been done with a wand, using a wand brought a bit of distance between the caster and the victim; it seems far less brutal that way. His former master had staunchly believed in not touching the muggles physically and made sure everything was done with a wand, for minimum taint and maximum muggle humiliation.

There was just something about knowing that someone right behind you was slitting another person's throat with no qualms. The men obviously all knew each other, how could they not even blink at coming to kill someone at least one of then had went to school with? Even when it came to his hated rival the time he was brought in by snatchers, he told his aunt he wasn't positive it was Potter when his face was swollen with all those stinging hexs—even though it obviously was. It was just inconceivable to him. He had tortured muggles multiple times as a Death Eater. He hadn't murdered anyone though, not even when his family's lives were on the line. He just couldn't do it.

With a sense of morbid curiosity, he turned so that he could see what was going on. The lifeless Daichi was laying face-down on the ground in a pool of blood, the teen from earlier was checking the body with his glowing hands. One of the masked shinobi retrieved a scroll from their pack and kneeled down to place it just outside of the puddle of red liquid.

The injured girl with the sword placed the blade on the dead blonde's neck and brought the blade up slightly with the intention of cutting it off. Suddenly feeling queasy, Ryuu hid his face back in his mother's neck, but couldn't help but hear the sound of the sword slicing clean through his neck to the ground.

* * *

When he and his mother arrived home she sat down with him in her lap, and just held him as she bowed her head over his shoulder.

"I know it's completely your choice, but sometimes I hope you won't go down the shinobi path," Hisa whispered. Ryuu didn't say anything, but he leaned into the hold she had on him and drank in her comforting scent.

His mind was whirling at this look into what it meant to be a shinobi. The idea of shinobi had always been a foreign concept to him, it was his father's job description. Of course, what his father had been doing lately had made Draco uneasy if he thought too long on it, but he had never seen what it entailed in person. This is what they could do, what _he_ was expected to do. Because that is obviously what Potter intended of him, to become a shinobi and use this 'chakra' to help the prophecy child. He wasn't stupid. He was consistently the third best student in every class back in Hogwarts. Potter had specifically said 'a civilian wouldn't be able to help this world very much', so he was expected to become a shinobi. There's no denying it.

It was a lot to wrap his head around, and he's not exactly enthusiastic about it.

This is the world that he was living in? What he was supposed to grow up to become?

Happy birthday to him...

* * *

 **A/N: First of all, to all you that followed this story, favorited it, and reviewed are the freaking bee's knees! I LOVE YOU, YOU LOVELY PEOPLE. Hopefully this is the beginning of a beautiful writer/reader relationship!**

 **So this is totally different from where I wanted to end the chapter, but if I had written to the part I wanted to the chapter probably would have been somewhere ~18-20k. I just don't want it to be THAT long.**

 **I know that fight scene wasn't overwhelming, but it wasn't supposed to be super flashy. Hopefully I'll get better at writing such scenes as the fic continues :)**

 **This chapter kicked my ass! Writing Draco as someone who knows basically nothing is terribly difficult, and the fact that this was practically all filler bogged me down quite a bit. Plus, my son has been waking up every time I get out of bed to write recently, and generally being super clingy. PLUS I am watching Shippuden all over again to get more ideas for major canon divergence.**

 **I know it seems like I'm probably leaving a lot of things out of the story, but this is all from a perspective of what** ** _Draco_** **knows, not what** ** _we_** **know. So please keep that in mind!**

 **Going back and forth from the name Draco to Ryuu and back again was intentional, Draco is trying to figure out who he is now. He obviously has a past as Draco, but he's going to be known as someone different for the rest of his second life, and he has to come to terms with that. Thinking of himself as Draco will phase out, and he will probably be calling himself Ryuu from now on—though he will mention his past as Draco often. I've tried to use 'Draco' for when he was thinking, and 'Ryuu' for when it had to do with his physical self.**

 **Also, I was sort of specific in Draco/Ryuu's physical development, because as a mother it always irked me when someone wrote completely crazy-fast/unrealistic development of babies, and I really wanted to write a proper one, if somewhat faster than normal on a few things because of his mental maturity/need to be self sufficient. But even with an adult mind, the baby's body would still have to develop it's muscles before it could lift it's head, crawl, support it's own weight, walk, or run! So there's my mini rant. I will say that I didn't exactly properly do the one-new-food-every-five-days thing, but come on. I can be a little lenient.**

 **We will get a little more insight into Draco/Ryuu's feeling on becoming a shinobi next chapter!**

 **Alright, so this is the only other chapter I have written. I know I said I would wait until I had three more chapters written to post the second chapter, but this took much longer than I thought (mostly because I was unsure what direction I wanted to take a certain part that could pertain to the entire story—it gave me writer's block for a few weeks, as well as being bogged down with all the filler) so I wanted to ask you guys for your input in a PM or review, or whichever.**

 **Questions to my readers:**

 **Would you rather me post chapters as soon as I get them finished and polished, or would you rather me wait until I have a few chapters shored up so that I can try to get on something of a posting schedule (even knowing it might be two or more months to get the three chapters done)?**

 **Another question, do you like the long chapters? The first chapter was about 13.5k, and this one was about 11k. I could post shorter chapters at around 6k-8k to get chapters out sooner if you guys would like. I want to keep them a fairly consistent length throughout, so I would rather get the chapter lengths set early on. I promise I'll never do a chapter under 6k, unless its like a special OMAKE or something!**

 **Please let me know lovelies!**

 **Sorry for the long ass author's note! It was actually longer, but I cut it down... I was going to include descriptions of the food and such, but I suppose google is our best friend, right?**

 **Until next time!**

 **-fortheloveofb**

 **Replies to guest reviews:**

 **Erzo: Thank you for the review! I'm glad you like what I'm doing with him! I want to keep a lot of his key traits, but tweak his background to make him a bit less abrasive. Character development will be essential to the story line! :)**

 **Raven: Thank you and thank you for the review! I hope you're not too disappointed by his parents being OCs, their backgrounds will come into play much later in the story! He's going to have to kind of seek Naruto out, since he doesn't know who the prophecy child is, but I didn't want him born in Konoha! I really wanted Draco just to have a shit time of it before really interacting with the main characters!**

 **Plop: Thank you for the review! And I'm glad my writing is clear :D Hopefully future chapters won't disappoint~**

 **Recommendations: Anything by the author The Carnivorous Muffin! Specifically Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus, and Minato Namikaze and the Destroyer of Worlds (which you need to have read Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus to really understand). If you haven't read any of her work, YOU'RE MISSING OUT. She also writes a ton of one shots, one for every 100th** **review of her main stories (which are super popular).**


	3. Chapter 2

**Posted 09/18/16**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto or Harry Potter franchises**

 **Minor A/N 1: Translations of various countries, Hidden Villages, other Japanese words, and jutsu are at the bottom of the chapter**

 **Minor A/N 2: I changed the legilimency scene from last chapter. You don't have to go back to read it, but basically he failed to be able to use his magic, and I described it a bit differently. I realized when I was writing this chapter that I couldn't justify him being able to use legilimency while not being able to use any other magics, not legitimately anyway. Plus I have a plot bunny I want to chase regarding his magic. Sorry if this disappoints! He will regain his legilimency eventually, I promise!**

 **Warnings: Canon typical violence, language, and character death**

 _ ***This story may have instances of awesomeness and "OMG", you'll laugh with a some scenes and you'll cry in others. In short, it's a good story. Phobey**_

 ***Fortheloveofb blushes***

 **Beta'd by Phoebus Oberon**

 **Chapter 2**

The first time Ryuu saw himself in a mirror it was completely by accident. His mother had decided to take him to town more often after his first birthday, despite the incident that occurred on the way back. This trip in particular was to buy him some new clothes, even though it was only February, apparently Hisa Yamakawa was a full believer in taking advantage of pre-seasonal sales. So, taking a look around the shop while she was rummaging through the mismatched sale rack, he was surprised to find himself facing a mirror for the first time.

For some reason, he hasn't been especially keen on seeing what the universe had re-branded him as. Maybe because it would finally confirm that he no longer looked like Draco Malfoy. His last attachment from his old life would be gone, and he would really have to accept the reality of reincarnation. Now, he knew this line of thought was completely irrational. After all, living as an infant for the last eighteen months or so, how could he not face the truth of his new life? It doesn't stop him from feeling that way though. Reluctantly he studied himself.

Of course he would have blonde hair in this life too, he should have known, after all his mother has a brilliant shade of blonde as well. There was a difference however, it was more of an ash blonde than the platinum of his previous life or the sunshine blonde of his mother. The teen known as Draco felt relief at the small memento of his former life, while the boy now known as Ryuu gazed at the unfamiliar visage in the mirror. His hair color was the only thing that survived the crucible of rebirth. His face—as far as he could tell with the stubborn pockets of baby fat—was far less aristocratic than the last, and his eyes have gained the exotic look of his Asiatic parents.

He examined his coloring, his skin was milky and pale with highlighted undertones of silver, and his pupiless-eyes were a strange dark-pink. His lips were thin just like his mother's. He seemed to take mostly after her, thankfully, but he did get features from his dad as well. Specifically the dark-brown, elongated diamond birthmark on the left side of his face that ran parallel to his ear.

Ryuu didn't stay in front of the mirror for very long. After a few more minutes of cursory examination he wandered back over to his mother, already desiring to be home in his room so that he could continue his study of hiragana and contemplate his appearance in peace.

* * *

The months leading up to his second birthday passed at a lazy pace. Being fully immersed in the Japanese language for two years made him a virtually native speaker, and even though he still found himself learning new words all the time, he could now translate most conversations as though they were in native english. Learning about hiragana and how to write it was not going nearly as well, but he was making amazing progress.

Ryuu found his spirits slightly dampened when he discovered that he would have to learn katakana and kanji as well—if only because katakana is so similar to hiragana, and kanji has over two thousand characters. Still, he found himself far more capable than most children in their second year of life, not to mention that he was finally reaching a point where his body responded exactly the way he wished it to. This was a consequence of the fact that his mother had him doing something similar to yoga every morning, making his current form far more flexible than his previous body.

Exposing himself to the local dialect and writing, also served to teach him the more about the culture he found himself in. His country, Yu no Kuni, was one of many nations—a rather minor one at that. There are five 'Great Nations', one of which was bordering his country. Yu no Kuni was actually a buffer country between two of the great nations along with their northern neighbor, Shimo no Kuni.

The dimension traveler hadn't learned much about the history yet, but he did get his hands on a map to memorize at least the basic layout of the surrounding area, both out of interest and practicality.

Hi no Kuni, one of the five great nations, is to the west of his country—southwest of where he is actually living. Then, north of Shimo no Kuni is the mountainous region of Kaminari no Kuni, another of the five great nations. Apparently, the two larger nations that his country falls in between don't have the best relations, and Ryuu found himself feeling slightly apprehensive about it.

Especially since he knows that there will eventually be war, though he didn't know why or whom either party would be. Not to mention, according to Kino-ojisan, the Third Shinobi World War—and Merlin, doesn't that sound alarming—hadn't ended until only months before his first birthday. The demilitarization of Yu no Kuni began during the last dregs of the previous war, and Ryuu couldn't help but wonder if part of that choice had been due to the death toll of their minor country.

All he knows for sure is that wherever there's a prophecy child, there is bound to be death.

He often found himself wondering where this "prophecy child" might be. Ryuu was basically told that his parents were more due to luck than any predetermined choice. His mother had just so happened to be at the perfect point in her pregnancy when his soul was in need of a new body. Draco shuddered sometimes, feeling slightly like he had slipped on ill-fitting clothes.

' _You're not supposed to be here_ ,' his mind whispered viciously. ' _You took the place of the child they wanted_.' Draco had to push those thoughts down, storing them away in an unused corner of his mindscape where he could avoid thinking of such painful, pointless thoughts.

Whenever his mind wandered to the prophecy child, he found himself pondering about the future. When would he find the child? How long would he have to wait? Would they be the same age, the way he and Potter had been? When would he have to leave his new family? Would they be safe during the events that would undoubtedly occur, or would they be in the thick of it the way his family had previously? Would he survive?

Being unable to brush these looming worries away the same way he had with his other recurring thoughts, he tried to remain preoccupied with learning as much as he could about the universe he found himself living in. The Elemental Nations really were a fascinating place, but he personally felt it would have been better to read about them in a book rather than experience the carnage himself.

Ryuu found the whole shinobi business rather distasteful, which made the fact that he would have to become one quite galling. Whenever his father was home he often told Ryuu dazzling stories about his adventures as a ninja—or at least, they would have been dazzling if he actually had the mentality of a two year old. As a toddler with an adult mindset, he found the tales of murder and espionage terrifying.

Here, death and deception were glorified.

Well, if not glorified, then at the very least necessary. Not even just necessary to survive, but killing someone might be what a shinobi is hired to do.

This sort of thinking really made him uncomfortable, because as Draco he hadn't even been able to kill his fossil-like headmaster for the sake of his family's lives. How was he supposed to murder another human being for no reason other than he was told to? It's not as though it would be a once in awhile thing, murder was literally a part of the job description.

As a provisional Death Eater, Draco had often been forced to witness many gruesome deaths, and torture. He even tortured people when he was told, but he had never killed someone. Not even a single nameless muggle. In many ways it seemed to Draco that being a shinobi belonging to a nation's 'hidden village' was akin to being a Death Eater under his former master.

There is a hierarchy, with one person at the top—a dictatorship—and the dictator tells all those below them what they must do. The shinobi must do so without question and complete loyalty to their Kage, just as the Death Eaters did for the Dark Lord.

Leaving the ranks results in death, or imprisonment and torture (as he had seen on his first birthday), and being branded as a traitor despite whatever reason a person might have for deserting. Also comparable to Death Eaters, shinobi are given missions that are expected to be completed without fail. They are both expected to kill on their leaders behalf, drench their hands in blood—for what reason? Pure blood? National pride? What a joke.

Ryuu found a bit of solace in the fact that while he was going to be trained as a shinobi, he wasn't going to belong to a village. His parents were going to teach him at home since Yu no Kuni's village had been disbanded. Thus wouldn't be expected to feign loyalty to some totalitarian shinobi. Unfortunately, that would also mean he would have no government body to protect him. He would be hired on an individual basis, rather than off of a roster.

His father—whose name he learned was Nao Akazawa—often rambled to him about how they would embark on fanciful missions together when he was older and more experienced. His father was an incredibly idealistic dreamer for a hired killer, but Ryuu wouldn't have it any other way. He just hated to think that he himself would never be as enthusiastic about such a thing. Though he would be happy for the time he would spend with his father, bonding over life and death situations wasn't something he wanted to become the norm in his familial relationships.

Ryuu couldn't deny the fact that he was breathless with anticipation over learning how to use his chakra. That, and learning how to harness his body. If anything, the experience of his death taught him that learning how to defend himself without a weapon could very well save his life. If he had been a bit better, a bit quicker, he wouldn't have died.

Draco would be at home with his mother, Narcissa. His probation would have been over, he could have already taken over the family business. Perhaps even be in an arranged relationship with a girl willing to look past his misdeeds—but that was impossible now. The thought that he could improve his body this time around made the sting of his physical defeat lessen.

Actually training his body however, was a completely different matter. The yoga-like stretches he did with his mother were one thing, but he found the process he would have to go through to train his body rather abominable. Hisa often took the time while they were stretching to talk him about the training regimen she would put him through as he aged. Both of his parents seemed to have the habit of rambling to him.

She also discussed basic chakra theory with him, about the physical and spiritual energy that makes up yin and yang chakra, as well as how to combine it. Though nothing that she spoke of was too indepth, he found him understanding chakra much better than he had ever understood the magic of his old world. Despite being taught a plethora of charms and other spells at Hogwarts, the curriculum never addressed where their magic came from, nor how it worked.

Ryuu tried to ask age appropriate questions while still obtaining the answers to the questions he had, but it usually backfired as Hisa was often surprised at his insight. Regularly calling him her 'little prodigy', and sometimes thanking the heavens that the village had disbanded so that he wouldn't be forced to become a ninja before he was actually ready.

Yes, his learning was coming along nicely.

* * *

During one of the weeks his father was home, Nao told his mother to go enjoy a day to herself so that she could have a break, but more so he could spend some one-on-one time with Ryuu. His father sent her out with enough money for a rather luxurious bathhouse and a similarity expensive meal. Being who she was, his mother was rather reluctant at first, but at his father's insistence—and Ryuu's subtly encouraging smile—she finally relented. His mother was nervous as it was going to be her first time truly being away from her son for any length of time aside from short grocery runs.

It took a few more seconds of directional prodding and promises of good behavior before his mother finally took off. Nao turned to him with a mischievous grin, his hair in it's familiar top knot, and his face showing shadows of usually absent facial hair. The only telltale sign of his most recent mission. Unconsciously, Ryuu's nose crinkled.

Seeing his expression his father laughed and rubbed his cheek sheepishly. "Yeah, it's rather strange to see Otou-san with a beard, huh? Would you like to watch me shave? I had been meaning to get around to it anyway."

"Okay, Otou-san," he replied, curious as to how they got rid of facial hair here. Honestly, as Draco he rarely had to do anything like that. Even in Azkaban he hardly had more than four or five wispy hairs on his chin and blonde fuzz on the top of his lip. Before Azkaban all it took was a simple spell and the troublesome hair fell straight out.

His father, not seeing his faraway look, interrupted his thoughts, "This is something you need to know anyway. You'll have hair like this—," he points to his patchy beard, "—when you're much, much older."

At this Ryuu outright scowls, causing Nao to chuckle again. Ryuu gave his father his best glare, but unfortunately it wasn't very effective. By this time they had both made it to the bathroom. The older man immediately removed a wooden box with metal clasps from a high shelf that the boy had never seen before.

His father unclasped the locks and lifted the lid removing one of the four identical items that were nestled in the box. With a flick of his wrist, Nao brought up a knife to the light of the spartan bathroom. It had a hollowed wooden handle where the blade could be slotted when not in use; the lacquered wood and polished silver blade were obviously well cared for. These knives are a bit different than he is used to in either of his lives, as they almost look like miniature cleavers.

"These beauties are called straight razors," his father informed him. "Your ojiisan bought these for me when I first started growing facial hair at about fifteen. They were very expensive, and we weren't the most well-off family around, but he bought them for me anyway. He spent many hours helping me perfect my shaving technique before dying not even two years later…," he trailed off with a wistful look on his face, "Enough about that though! Watch me do this really quick, then we can get to the fun stuff we're going to do today, ehh?" Nao continued with a grin that didn't quite mask the lingering sadness in his eyes.

Ryuu let him change the subject without protest. Though he had yet to lose a parent—did it really count as losing his parents if he was the one who had died?—he could still understand the sentiment. He would never see his original parents again, and despite his dubious upbringing, he still feels the sting of longing for them occasionally.

Bringing his thumbnail over the edge of the blade his father fondly went on, "Luckily, I don't need to hone it this time." Nao spent the next few minutes telling him what the different parts of the razor were called and showing him the basic grip, before pulling yet another container from one of the high shelves.

"This is the stuff you put on your face before you shave. If you don't have any then that's okay, but you have to be extra careful and you probably won't get the smoothest shave, not to mention razor burn," the white haired man grimaced, "You don't have much choice in the field though. I obviously don't take these with me on missions. If I need to shave on missions I just use a kunai. Not highly recommended, but you make due with what you have." Removing the top off of the small container he dipped three fingers in and brought out a creamy substance which he began applying liberally to his face.

"What is that stuff, Tou-san?" Ryuu asked curiously. The dense texture reminded him of the different salves he used to make in potions class so many years ago.

"It's a mixture of shea butter, a few different oils, and a bit of baking soda. You have to cook it a bit before it will thicken into this texture, but it's well worth it," Nao answered distractedly.

Having finished applying the mixture, Nao spent a considerably longer time talking him through the process of shaving properly, and how to avoid cutting yourself. Which he explained was especially important for those who are planning on entering a shinobi career, since the scent of blood can easily be tracked by elite shinobi.

When he was done he retrieved a vial from his room. "This is a liquid which was made from boiling a particular shrub's stems in water. You rub it across your face after shaving to reduce skin irritation. Appropriately, it's called aftershave." Nao grinned crookedly again, regaining his earlier contentment.

As fascinating as Ryuu found this extensive shaving process, he was glad it was all over. It took forever, and there were other things he would rather be doing with his father than watching hair fall off his face.

Perhaps noting his son's eyelids drooped in boredom, Nao suggested the two go outside for awhile—to which Ryuu immediately agreed, hoping he would learn something new or see some of his father's prowess in action.

Ryuu was reminded of his childish awe of Lucius's political savvy when he was growing up. He was always enthralled to see his father talk circles around his peers. As much as Draco had tried, he never quite got the hang of it. Thinking back on his verbal confrontations with Potter often had him cringing in embarrassment.

The father and son wandered outside at a lazy pace, neither wanting to rush their time together. Once they passed the garden toward the back of the yard they came to the designated 'training area'. Mostly just an open space that was kept empty aside from multiple targets kept at various distances and altitudes. Some of them were even made to swing for moving target practice, though his father always mentioned that it was nothing like aiming for an actual moving human.

Nao removed his kunai pouch from his thigh and draped it across Ryuu's lap once they were sitting side by side against a tree.

"Go ahead and take one out, the handles are facing up, but be careful anyway. You don't want to get cut," Nao said.

Ryuu murmured in the affirmative before slowly unclasping the flap of the pouch. It had three different compartments; the largest compartment obviously held an assortment of live kunai. A second, thinner compartment was on the outer edge of the pouch, it held about twenty shuriken upright, slotted next to each other. And the last compartment was smaller on the leftmost corner of the pouch that would be closest to the inner thigh. It held a bundle of senbon, a container of soldier pills, and a few ration bars.

After taking it all in, Ryuu was quick to retrieve a kunai by the handle and fasten the pouch one handed.

Nao plucked the kunai from his hand expertly before explaining all the different parts of it, much like he did with the straight razor.

Once he was finished he handed it back to Ryuu and replaced his closed kunai pouch back on his thigh as he stood up.

"Now, I want you to get up and throw the kunai at the tree you're leaning against. I want to see how you naturally feel inclined to throw it, and then I will show you the correct way to throw it," Nao instructed.

Ryuu nodded and stood up to face the tree. Moving back about three meters he paused and glanced to make sure Nao was watching him. The man was standing with his arms crossed a few meters away from both Ryuu and the tree, presumably so that he could see the throw clearly.

Ryuu moved one foot in front of the other and brought his arm up to throw the kunai. He lined up his arm with the tree trunk, and proceeded to throw it forcefully. The kunai's ring span forward causing the kunai to flip backwards in midair. The edge of the blade thunked into the tree fairly close to the ground, and the ring of the kunai pointing almost directly up.

Nao nodded with a thoughtful look on his face. "That actually wasn't half bad," he complimented. "Alright, well let's start with your stance. It was almost right, but your feet need to be a bit farther apart. Shoulder width," he said, moving parallel to Ryuu so he could demonstrate the stance.

The young blonde moved his feet further apart so that they lined up with his shoulders.

"That's it! Just make sure your feet are facing forward. We're starting with the beginner's throw. You have to be thoroughly familiar with it before you can move to the advanced throw, which focuses more on accuracy and force. You can't skimp on the beginner stuff if you want to do well on advanced techniques, unless you want to learn bad habits that you'll have to break later!" Nao lectured in what Ryuu now liked to call his 'teaching mode'.

"Aside from your stance, the way you brought up you arm was almost completely accurate," he admitted. "I just have to help you adjust your grip and your release timing. Well, and the actual way you're throwing, you're being too stiff."

Nao spent the next few minutes correcting Ryuu's minor mistakes, and giving a walkthrough demonstration of the proper way to do the beginner's throw.

Nao ended his mini lesson with, "So, remember to cup it lightly the way I showed you, and stroke the handle on the release. Just make sure to move your finger before it touches the ring, otherwise it'll go off course. The point of this is to throw it straight and have it stick in the tree properly, nothing else. This is your first lesson, and most of this comes with practice. I just want you to have a solid base to work with."

Trying to make sure to keep all of his father's instructions in mind, Ryuu threw the kunai for a second time.

This time it didn't even make it to the tree, it thudded into the ground. The former Slytherin felt a red flush creeping up the back of his neck, and avoided looking at his father.

One thing that never changed about his first father or his second was that Draco wanted to please them. Wanted them to be proud of him. Draco will never forget the sneers he would receive from Lucius if he did something incorrectly.

He heard a huff of amusement from behind him. "Don't be discouraged, Ryuu-chan. That was only your second throw. Technically it isn't unusual to practice basic throws into the dirt first anyway, so if that makes you more comfortable we can certainly do that instead," Nao offered.

"No, Otou-san. I'll keep trying for the tree," he insisted, pride rearing up in indignation at such a notion. He started with throwing at the tree, so he would keep throwing at the bloody tree.

Nao smiled in outright glee and exclaimed, "Just as stubborn as your dear old Tou-san!"

Ryuu rolled his eyes.

The older man continued to make minute corrections here and there until Ryuu was at least hitting the tree two out of every three tries. He basically found out that he had been thinking about it too hard, when he actually needed to allow the release of the kunai to happen gradually rather than all at once. When he finally understood that concept, he had an infinitely easier time of it.

Once they finished lobbing the kunai, Nao grinned broadly and began rubbing his hands together.

"How about I show you a few jutsu, Ryuu-chan?" He asked with an anticipatory glint in his eyes.

Ryuu raised his eyebrows. If Nao thinks the former Slytherin will be have a dropped jaw by some impressive jutsu he will be wrong.

Of course, Ryuu wants to see his father's jutsu. He's going to be learning jutsu one day after all. And perhaps he will be surprised by a few things, but while it's different from magic, the effects can still be similar.

Draco had witnessed massive feats of magic by his former master though, so he doubts this will top any of his previous experiences with forces beyond nature.

Still, excited to see what exactly his father can do and what he would likely be taught he replied, "Okay, Otou-san!"

"Alright! Let's get to it!" Nao clapped his hands. "Well let's start with some easy stuff. First off, jutsus are ranked by their difficulty level. E-rank is the easiest, then D-rank, then C-rank, et cetera until you get to A-rank which are usually performed by jonins and such. There's also S-rank, but I doubt you'll ever have to worry about those—they're incredibly difficult and require massive amounts of chakra to execute.

"You, your mother, and I all have slightly larger than average reserves, but nothing of that caliber. Anyway, you'll eventually be able to perform multiple A-rank justus and still have chakra to spare," Nao explained animatedly. "So I'll start with demonstrating a few E-rank jutsu. These three specifically are jutsu that any ninja worth his or her salt will have mastered by the time they leave the academy.

"Or in your case—," He nods his head at Ryuu, "—by the time you start going on missions with me."

The blonde boy nodded his head in understanding. "If everyone knows them, then aren't they easy to counter? Why is it so important to learn easy jutsu like that?" He asked in honest curiosity.

Nao smiled at him and ruffled his hair affectionately. "Well, you'll understand better after you see them, but these are the basics. You know, there are many many jonin who focus on mastering the basics rather than any specialty.

"They're the basics for a reason. These three E-rank jutsu, proficiency with kunai and shuriken, basic taijutsu… They can and most likely will save your life one day," Nao explained with an uncharacteristically serious expression.

"A ninja who knows a thousand jutsu, but isn't familiar with the basics could easily be defeated by someone who knows them."

In the back of his mind Draco was likening these basics to spells like _protego_ and _expelliarmus._ Potter often stuck to tried and true rather than learning obscure magic. It made sense and he told his father just that.

"Can you show me the three jutsu then, Otou-san? When will I start learning them?"

Nao gave his signature lopsided smile, "Whoa now, don't get ahead of yourself!" He laughed as he waved his hand in a vague gesture. "You haven't even started chakra control exercises yet. Plus, your kaa-san and I want to sit down with you for formal chakra lessons first.

"We know you're unusually bright for your age, but we just want to doublecheck that you know all the facts up front before beginning your shinobi training. Make no mistake—," he said after seeing Ryuu's irritated expression, "—you'll be starting soon, just not quite yet."

Ryuu nodded his assent, understanding it wasn't something they would budge on.

"Good. Now, this first jutsu is called the _Kawarimi_. It's a substitution technique that you use to switch places with a piece of debris during a fight. For example, if someone threw a barrage of kunai or shuriken at you, then you could substitute yourself with, say, a fallen branch or something. That way you won't risk being hit if you aren't confident that you can dodge all of them," Nao lectured easily.

"Now, I know we haven't taught you hand seals yet, but watch me closely. The hand seals for the _Kawarimi_ are tiger, boar, ox, dog, snake." The white haired chunnin went extremely slow so that Ryuu could see the exact placement of his fingers.

"Once you're well versed in it you'll be able to lower the number of seals, and eventually you won't need them at all. It'll be the same way with all three of the E-rank jutsu I plan on showing you."

Ryuu's brow furrowed in confusion, "So, what is the purpose of hand seals?"

"They help you mold your chakra in order to execute a specific technique. That's why—after a person has a solid grasp of a technique—they can eliminate the use of hand signs gradually. When you have performed it numerous times you come to recognize how the chakra is shaped for that particular jutsu so that you don't necessarily need the crutch of hand seals. The speed it takes to complete the hand seals for a jutsu is critical during a battle—if you are fast and you don't have to perform as many seals as your opponent then you have the upper hand," Nao clarified. The man was glad that his son was asking questions.

Ryuu's brow smoothed out once he understood. ' _So it's like how wizards use wands. It seems like sealless jutsu is more common than wandless magic though.'_ He surmised to himself.

"I understand. May I see you use the technique?"

His father laughed again, "Of course! I thought you'd never ask!" The older male went to their wood pile and hefted the largest log to one side of the area and jogged to the opposite side.

"Watch this!" Nao cried excitedly. He rapidly flipped through the seals before switching places with the log.

Ryuu's head swiveled to see his father where the log originally was. ' _So it's like a more inconvenient apparation over a shorter distance.'_ He thought critically.

Aloud he teased the older man in a tone of childish bluntness, "Wow, Otou-san! Is that short distance as far as you can go?"

Nao's head hung as he sweat dropped, obviously expecting a bit more of a positive reaction.

Ryuu took that brief moment to smirk evilly to himself, suppressing his laughter.

Recovering quickly the man bounded over and picked him up by the waist to twirl him around in the air.

Ryuu hissed and glared at his father, the man knows he doesn't like things like this. Laughing in amusement, Nao finally answered, "That's not the longest distance I can go, but this is only an E-rank jutsu. You have to be in the general area of whatever you're substituting yourself for," he explained cheerfully. "It's extremely difficult the substitute yourself with something you can't see unless you know it's exact location."

The larger male finally put him down, and Ryuu wasted no time in kicking his shin. Nao didn't even flinch as he laughed again and said, "Oh come on, Ryuu-chan. You have to let me treat you like a kid _sometimes._ "

The blonde rolled his eyes again, but the side of his lip quirked up the smallest bit. His father grinned in triumph.

"So, what's the next E-rank, Otou-san?"

Getting back down to business, Nao replied, "Okay, next up is the _Henge no Jutsu._ It allows the user to transform into someone else's appearance."

"The hand seals for this one are dog, boar, and ram," he went on, once again slowing his hands to show Ryuu his finger placements.

With a puff of smoke, his mother's form was now standing in front of him.

This time, Ryuu nodded his head with raised eyebrows. ' _Impressive,'_ he thought, ' _It's like the Polyjuice Potion, but minus the grueling, month-long brewing process!'_

He remained impressed until Nao began making faces and doing other stupid things that Hisa would never do. Ryuu couldn't help but smile broadly, unable to completely subdue his mirth.

Seeing Nao's stupid grin on his mother's face was just comical.

With a second puff of smoke, Nao returned to normal.

"The _Henge_ can last for a long time, especially when you have a lot of chakra as we do. Often times it's better to just change your own appearance in minor ways than to _Henge_ as someone else though, that way your cover won't be blown if someone recognizes the person whose appearance you have borrowed."

Moving on to the last E-rank jutsu, Nao began, "Last, but certainly not least, is the _Bunshin no Jutsu_. It makes a mirage of yourself so that it appears there are two or more of yourself, which can cause confusion for the enemy. It's fairly easy to discern which one is the original though, so I wouldn't rely on it too heavily. Actually, this is the most basic of the _Bunshin._ I'll tell you more about the others shortly.

"First, the hand seals are ram, snake, tiger."

Suddenly, there were five different Naos in the grassy area.

"Now," all the Naos spoke together, "Look closely. Can you tell which of us is the real one?"

Ryuu examined them intently. They all looked the same to him.

A light breeze blew across the clearing as he studied them. Then he realized, only one of their clothes began moving from the wind. It was the Nao on the far left. Taking care not to focus on that particular Nao he subtly looked at the ground. That one was the only one with a shadow, though it was barely there since it was almost noon.

Wanting to mess with his father, Ryuu walked to each _Bunshin_ starting with the one on the far right. When he came to the real Nao he observed him in the same way, before smirking.

Ryuu stomped on Nao's in-step as viciously as his miniature body could muster. Out of love of course.

"Ouch!" The white haired man whined, but looking like it didn't hurt him at all.

Ryuu's smirk morphed into an irked frown wondering if his stomp was really that weak. Nao smiled and ruffled his hair again. Ryuu swatted at his hand.

"Don't worry, kiddo. When you're bigger you'll be able to do more damage. You aimed at the perfect spot though!" He encouraged.

Nao went on, "But seriously, well spotted. I had a feeling you'd be able to find me." His eyes fell closed as he tilted his head with a grin.

' _This guy smiles too much_ ,' Ryuu thought in exasperated fondness.

"Back to what I was saying before, this is the most basic of the _Bunshin_. Once you master nature transformation you'll be able to make clones out of your element—"

"What's nature transformation?" The blonde interrupted.

"Be patient, gaki! I was getting to it!" Nao reprimanded playfully. "Everyone's chakra has one or more elemental natures. Most have one main, and some have one or two secondary affinities as well. Those with kekkei genkai have two main natures, but that's not important right now.

"Chakra is either water, lightning, earth, wind, or fire natured. For example, your mother and I are both water natured, so in all likelihood you are as well—but, I also have a secondary lightning nature from my grandfather's family, so that's a second possibility. They were from Kumo where lightning is the most common chakra affinity."

Now this was something Ryuu found fascinating. This must of been what he witnessed between those shinobi on his first birthday. He _had_ seen lightning, after all.

Though Draco had learned _incendio_ and _aguamenti_ at Hogwarts, they were minor spells. Of course, he had been exposed to fiendfyre as well, but that was difficult to control and he had never bothered with learning such a dangerous enchantment.

Elemental jutsus would be extremely useful to learn, even if what you could learn was limited by what nature you are born with.

"Depending on what nature transformations you master, which in most cases is only the nature you have an affinity with, you can make _Bunshins_ that you can actually use in combat that are made from your element."

He grinned rakishly, "I love making two _Bunshins_ —one out of water and one out of lightning—and having the _Mizu Bunshin_ take the lead. It intentionally leaves openings for the enemy to utilize, and when the _Mizu Bunshin_ bursts the water scatters all over my opponent and the surrounding area.

"Then my _Raiton Bunshin_ comes in for a second attack!" Nao went on excitedly, his eyes holding a faraway look, "The enemy often thinks it's a second _Mizu Bunshin_ or that it's actually me, and when they attack my clone—zzzztt!" He mimes electrocution, then sighs dreamily, "It's beautiful. That trick never gets old."

His son looked at him in questioning concern, wondering if everything was working properly in his brain.

Nao laughs lightly at his expression, "Don't worry, kid. People in our profession develop a morbid sense of humour. I'm sure you'll get it one day."

Ryuu doubts that, but he let it go to ask, "When will I start learning elemental justus, Otou-san?"

"Not for a long time yet, I'm afraid. Learning nature transformation is exceedingly difficult. Sometimes it takes years to be able to learn to even use your first chakra nature. Personally, it only took me a year to get my first water technique up to scratch and another year after that to learn the simplest lightning jutsu," Nao leveled with him. "Don't let that discourage you though. Elemental techniques are important to learn, no matter how long they take. If you so choose to be a ninjutsu specialist, they will make up the backbone of your arsenal."

While this was not what Ryuu wanted to hear he tried not to let his disappointment to shine through.

"Well what's your favorite water jutsu, then?" He figured he may as well get a demonstration. He was already familiar with a few lightning techniques.

"My favorite, hmm?" Nao tapped his chin with his forefinger thoughtfully, "Well, my favorite jutsu isn't the same as my most impressive jutsu, ya know?" He waggled his eyebrows. "My favorite would have to be _Suiton: Water Whip_! It's another technique that's easy to combine with lightning. Actually almost all of my jutsu take advantage of water's conductivity."

He stepped back and faced the other direction before flipping through more signs. " _Suiton: Water Whip!"_ A thread of water materialized in his hand. It quickly thickened and lengthened to form the whip.

"It used to take me twenty minutes to form this baby," he stroked the whip-shaped water fondly, "That just goes to show how far training can get you! Now I can make it in fifteen seconds!"

The white haired man checked to make sure his son wasn't in the line of fire before snapping the whip back and cracking it on the ground.

When Nao brought the whip back up there was a deep gash left where whip touched the earth. Ryuu found himself surprised that the whip didn't break on contact.

"What else can you use water transformation for?" He asked.

Nao let go of his chakra and allowed the whip to dissipate. "Well there's a large variety of water techniques, but honestly it's not the best offensive element out there. Besides offensive jutsu, there are quite a few techniques designed for staying hidden. You can use water affinities to drown enemies while they're sleeping, as long as they aren't also water users anyway."

Ryuu grimaced in distaste at the last suggestion.

"Okay, then water techniques are the best thing to use against fire users? Is there one that is strong against water?"

Nao opened his mouth to answer his son's question, but before he could his stomach growled loudly.

Ryuu smirked at him, amused.

A light blush spread across his father's cheeks, "Ahh, well. I guess it's time to eat then. Let's grab something to bring out here and we can continue talking as we eat."

The father and son duo scourged the kitchen, and found that Hisa had actually made them bentos before she left.

"Kuso! She's supposed to be relaxing!" Nao fretted with a panicked look on his face. "I'm a terrible spouse!"

The former Slytherin rolled his pink eyes, "Let's just eat them, Tou-san. We can thank her properly later. These are already made!"

"But—!" The chunnin's stomach chose that moment to rumble menacingly. Nao sweatdropped.

Ryuu couldn't help but snort. "Sounds like your belly is threatening you, Tou-san. You best eat it before it eats you!"

Grumbling to himself Nao petulantly followed his son back out to the tree they had used for kunai practice. Ryuu was inordinately pleased by the knicks he had left in the wood. He settled next to his father where the two continued to talk about jutsu and chakra for the next hour as they ate from the small bento boxes Hisa had prepared for them.

Not long after the two finished eating there was an unspoken agreement to rest after their morning of pseudo-training. Relishing in the perfect weather, the blonde leaned his head on his father's chest as his eyelids drooped shut—Nao's breathing had already evened out into a deep sleep.

Ryuu found himself following soon after.

* * *

The steady beat of his father's heart roused him from his nap, laying there in comfortable silence. The blonde wondered just how hard the mission must have been for him to sleep so deeply days later. Putting the thought aside, he quietly padded inside.

Ryuu planned to use this alone time to meditate and attempt to reconnect with his magic, he hadn't even tried to seek out his chakra since he wasn't really sure what to do with it. It was a moot point, as Nao had promised they would begin on chakra soon.

He grabbed the closest cushion to him and wasted no time in entering the seiza position—both his parents and his previous lineage refused to allow him to slouch, not that he would have if given the choice. Using occlumency he went through the process of decluttering his mind to make the best of his unplanned meditation time.

He had been sporadically attempting to touch his magic since the failed legilimency event, and found that he could reach out to it easily. Though, Ryuu once again noticed, that when he sought it out that it was more chaotic and compact than the easily manipulated entity it had been in his previous life.

The blonde wouldn't be surprised however if that only had to do with his age, and the fact that he had not yet trained with his magic in this body.

Despite the fact that his magic was based in his 'soul' which held his magical core, there was still a physical aspect as well. A person can't attempt to use such a force without practice. Ryuu thought of it as picking up an instrument again after years of not practicing, maybe you remember the finger placements, but you still can't start at the same level you were before you quit.

Now he can only hope that getting back up to speed will be as easy as relearning an instrument. A feeling in his gut was telling him this won't be the case though.

Ryuu, not for the first time, keenly felt the loss of his wand. How can he possibly cast magic without his wand? Occlumency is one thing, it's a mind magic that—despite being closely related to legilimency—is a branch which uses the latent magical energy of a wizard's body, not the magic of the soul. A witch or wizard's magical core is what is used for anything that casts magic outside of the body, usually through a foci such as a wand, staff, or stave.

As it was, Draco had practiced pulling magic out from his core countless times when he was learning legilimency, but that was the only time he had only ever consciously felt out his magic. When he had his wand in his hand and cast a spell he never had to search out for it, it just surged through his wand like an eager puppy trying to please it's master—but even that is a terrible comparison, his magic is a part of him. Like his lungs, or his stomach. In certain ways it functions on an autonomic level.

Playing with the familiar mass of energy, Ryuu began tugging on it. Once again he struggled to hold onto the thick energy. Trying a different approach, the former Slytherin teased the magic in an attempt to loosen the wad of condensed power. If anything the mass seemed to compact itself even further.

Quickly tiring of his fruitless endeavour to coax his magic into cooperation, Ryuu sighs and stands from his previous seiza. He can be infinitely patient—when it's absolutely necessary—but currently, the blonde doesn't want to waste anymore of his precious little free time.

Padding softly through the small house his eyes widen as they fall on an unattended bottle.

Ryuu can't help but smirk as he draws closer to the clear liquid. He had always wondered what sake tasted like.

He quickly retrieved a shot glass from the kitchen, constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure he's still alone. He feels a bit thrilled at doing something so incredibly stupid. ' _I wonder if this is how Potter felt all the time in Hogwarts_ ,' Draco thought, snickering softly to himself.

Grabbing the bottle of room temperature sake, the former Slytherin slides open a window just a fraction to double check that Nao was still soundly sleeping under the tree outside. He was.

Ryuu silently makes his way to his room knowing that what he is doing isn't exactly allowed, or legal, by any stretch of the imagination. He knows he can just blame it on his age though. An unattended 'adult beverage'? Why wouldn't he be curious about why he wasn't allowed to drink it?

Besides, Ryuu honestly doubted he would even get drunk. The sake only had a 15% alcohol content. He used to need multiple shots of Ogden's Best Fire Whiskey before he ever got drunk—not that it had happened all that often.

Once he was securely ensconced in his room the diminutive blonde poured himself a shot. He figured he might as well savour the taste since he wasn't likely to get another chance to indulge in alcohol until he's much older.

Cupping the glass the same way he would a hot cup of tea, he took a sip.

His eyes widened in surprise, it went down in a similar fashion to some of the white wines he had tasted at various ministry events as a teen. Very dry, with a suspicious hint of a warm finish, but surprisingly smooth.

Draco didn't know what he had been expecting, but this wasn't it.

He allowed himself to relish the taste a bit longer before swallowing. It wasn't long before he finished the entire serving he had poured for himself. Not giving it much thought, he poured himself another and sipped as he reminisced about better times, which led to him reminiscing about his serious lack of better times... Which led to him feeling a bit bitter that his new life is actually better than his previous one... Which then led to him realizing the room was looking mighty warped…

...Warped?

All of a sudden the alcohol hit Ryuu, and he blinked before dissolving into giggles at seemingly nothing.

Looking up at the ceiling, Draco shouted in English (though with a serious accent), " _THANK YOU, POTTER! BEING REBORN IS ACTUALLY THE BEST THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED TO ME!_ " He paused to giggle again, "Isn't that just pathetic, Potter?"

" _ARE YOU LISTENING POTTER?!_ "

Feeling as if he were forgetting something important, Ryuu continued waxing poetic about how much his life had improved compared to his life as an English wizard.

"— _and even though I know less people, and have less money, it's just better, you know?"_ He slurred, " _The best thing is I can still use the phrase 'wait until my father hears about this', except instead of using political clout like Lucius, he can just beat the snot out of the little twerps! I bet Nao would have wiped the floor with you, Potter! Not that I'll actually use that phrase… I'd be making fun of myself more than anything—_ "

He abruptly stopped talking as he heard a door slide open frantically. His pink eyes widened in horror when his eyes fell on the open sake bottle on the floor of his room as the panicky footsteps grew nearer. Closely accompanied by Nao's shouts of, 'Ryuu, are you inside?! Shit!'

Lightning quick, Ryuu screwed the cap back on and tossed the bottle in the closet where he kept his futon, knowing that it would cushion the descent of the bottle. Not a moment too soon as his father careened into the room with a look of thinly veiled terror on his face that was quickly replaced with an expression of relief and surprise.

"Ryuu-chan, haven't you heard me calling for you? You had me scared to death, I thought you wandered off on your own!" Nao panted breathlessly, less from exertion and more from the anxiety he had undoubtedly felt.

"Etoooo…," Ryuu desperately tried to scrape some semblance of an answer together in his scrambled mind, before his father's next words caused his thought to run cold.

"Ryuu-chan, why do you have a shot glass in here?" Nao questioned with a furrowed brow.

The blonde was really starting to sweat now. "Ano... I was thirsty?" He said with a questioning lilt, knowing almost immediately that Nao would be able to tell he was lying.

Nao's eyes narrowed in suspicion, and Ryuu couldn't quite contain his flinch with the alcohol in his system. "What are you hiding, gaki?"

Without waiting for an answer the white haired man began looking around at the same time Ryuu took the time to mutter ' _curse you, Potter_ ' in English while trying to stagger to the door without being noticed.

This obviously didn't work. One might even say it had the opposite effect…

As Nao watched his son totter to the door he connected the dots easily after looking at the empty shot glass and remembering that he had left his sake bottle out the night before.

"Holy shit. Ryuu-chan, are you drunk?" The man asked incredulously.

Ryuu's face twisted into the guiltiest expression his father had ever seen.

Without warning, Nao began laughing uproariously. Within a few seconds Ryuu joined him in possibly the most carefree laugh that had ever escaped his lips in either life. Once again feeling elated from the alcohol, he laughed so hard he started crying.

They both would start calming down just to see each other's faces and start laughing all over again.

Besides the love he felt towards Nao, for the first time he felt camaraderie as well. In reality, the two were only four years apart mentally, but strangely enough Ryuu had never thought about it like that—even when he was younger. For this moment he can't help but feel like are nothing more than best mates rather than father and son.

But maybe that's just the sake talking.

Eventually the two really did calm down, albeit with the occasional snicker. After that the duo made their way to the kitchen where Nao made Ryuu drink plenty of water so he wouldn't dehydrate.

The next hour or so was spent listening to his father's funnier tales that he hadn't been privy to before (including the tale of his clipped ear), with plenty of laughter to go around. Ryuu doubts there was a time in his first life that ever compared to the happiness and closeness he felt with a human being as he felt at this very moment.

He doesn't remember much after that—most likely he fell asleep again with help from the sake—but he does vaguely remember cuddling with his father on his parent's futon.

The next morning the family of three was eating a breakfast of rice, miso soup, rolled omelette, and kobachi.

"How was your alone time yesterday, Hisa?" Nao asked curiously.

Hisa smiled brightly, "Oh, it was wonderful! The onsen was amazing, I haven't been to one in years! Then, I went to one of the new restaurants that someone recommended to me. The food was delicious!" She went on enthusiastically. She elaborated to her two boys all the specifics of her day.

"Then, when I came home I found the two of you curled up together in bed! It was the cutest thing! I wish camera's weren't so expensive or else I would have taken a picture!"

As she babbled on Ryuu glanced at his father. Nao's gaze was lingering on Hisa contentedly until he felt his son watching him. Meeting the young boy's gaze, Nao winked and placed a finger over his lips.

Ryuu grinned. All in all, it had been a great day.

* * *

It had been a slow month without his father when there was a knock on the front door. He looked to his mother curiously, wondering if she knew who it was. She was gazing toward the door with a frown on her face. If it was his father he wouldn't have knocked, and Kino-ojisan had just left for a mission the day previously, so Ryuu knew it wasn't him.

Warily, Hisa walked toward the door. Ryuu watched her pat herself down to make sure she had easily accessible weapons before cracking the door open.

He watched her anxiously as a bad feeling blossomed low in his gut. When he heard his mother gasp, Ryuu stood up quickly and began making his way over to her. His mother opened the door all the way, and gestured for two men to come inside.

"I'll go boil some water for tea," Hisa announced. Her voice was shaking. She obviously recognized the duo.

They acknowledged her with solemn nods, and left their shoes in the genkan. Wasting no time, the somber men slipped on two pairs of guest slippers and gracefully settled at the low table.

Ryuu had never met the men before. The older man had shaggy blue hair and a heavily scarred face. He remained stoic under Ryuu's scrutiny. The other man, who was about his mother's age, had light brown hair in classic military style and the standard Hot Water jounin uniform—despite the fact it had been two years since the village was disbanded. He gave Ryuu a small sympathetic smile before directing his gaze elsewhere.

A few minutes later, Hisa came in holding a bamboo tray with her favorite cast iron teapot, and four matching teacups. Setting it down she proceeded to serve the tea starting with the older gentleman.

The blue haired man hummed appreciatively as the hot tea touched his tongue. "Is this kukicha, Yamakawa-san?"

"Yes, it's Nao's favorite," Hisa replied, studying the other two to gauge their reactions. A terse silence descended on the table as Ryuu sipped his tea, eyes darting between the seated adults.

His mother lowered her cup to the table, maintaining her strict posture. "Why are you here, Asagi-san?" She questioned the elder man in a voice that was calm once more, "I thought none of you would be back until June."

The man, Asagi, sighed heavily. They had only been prolonging the inevitable.

He pulled something from his pocket. His mother's face drained of blood. It was his father's hitae'ate.

Slowly, her hand extended to remove the headband from his outstretched fingers.

"What happened?" She asked sounding hollow. It was obvious to Draco what had happened, but, as Ryuu, he found himself staunchly denying the possibility. Nao must be in the hospital or something.

The younger man cut in, "You know we were traveling with merchants on one of the main trading routes," Hisa nodded mechanically, though she recognized it as a rhetorical question, "Well, we ran into the usual bandit group or two. A few low level rogue nins, but nothing too difficult with five of us.

"It turns out one of the merchants who was traveling with our group wasn't a merchant at all, he was an important political figure from Tanigakure who was traveling in secret to Nami no Kuni—as a good faith gesture. The two countries have just signed a private trading agreement that allows Kawa no Kuni to use Nami's ports. I don't really need to go into the politics of it any more than that, but obviously a new shipping agreement would ruffle a few feathers."

Asagi grunted in affirmation and added, "Turns out some big-shot civilian family that controls most of the ports in Cha no Kuni heard about it somehow—spies no doubt—," the blue-haired man scowled fiercely, "—and hired a professional team from Konoha to eliminate the official from Tani."

While many of the nation's names flew over his head, Ryuu could easily see the picture that was being painted. A political figure traveled with under-qualified shinobi for an escort mission of such a large caliber under the false assumption that his anonymity was assured, and possibly to save money. A group that has control over multiple ports hears about it, and decides to try and nip it in the bud so that they won't lose any money when cargo ships bypass their country for the other country's ports.

"It's a shame, because apparently their spies hadn't informed the port owners that the shipping agreement had already been made. This was just a political figure going in an official capacity as a public gesture. This whole thing was unnecessary bloodshed—" the younger man, Ryuu was getting irritated that they had yet to mention his name, stopped abruptly at the quelling glare Asagi gave him. Realizing his faux pas, the man quickly resumed drinking the lukewarm tea he had left in his cup.

Hisa was staring down at the teacup, her hands still wrapped loosely around it. "You're avoiding my question. What. Happened," she demanded in the same hollow voice, though it still rung with the quiet authority of someone who was expecting answers.

"Well, we're not sure how they found our exact location, but it wouldn't have been too difficult to gather intel from the previous towns we had traveled through in Hi no Kuni. They planned an ambush, and used our ignorance against us," the chestnut-haired man began uneasily. "They only sent three clanless shinobi to engage us at first. They were henged and acted as low-level bandits. The Konoha party had a Kurama clansman with them who used genjutsu to cover himself, and an Inuzuka woman along with her ninken from our sights. Kami, we could have used your help with him, Yamakawa-san," the man grimaced at Asagi.

Asagi took up the story running his hand through his unkempt hair, "When we noticed the three 'bandits' preparing to poorly ambush us, Nao and Shiro went to take care of them while Uhei, Renji—," his eyes flicked over to his comrade, "—and I remained with the merchants to protect the goods and civilians; just incase there were more than the three."

Ryuu took a moment to glance at his mother. Hisa's head was still hung over her tea, but her eyes were wide open drinking in every word of the story. The two visitors shifted a bit in their seiza positions, obviously growing uncomfortable with the strict posture, but not daring to move lest they incur the ire of their host.

"The two disappeared into the woods, but almost as soon as they were out of sight I felt three more chakra signatures appear out of nowhere. Now, I'm not really a sensor nin, I can't tell the amount of chakra a person has to save my life, but I can feel the presence of others within about a ten meter radius. So when Nao and Shiro got out of my range, and then I felt three more signatures on top of the three previous 'bandits', I knew we'd been had.

"I alerted the other two and we took off in pursuit to back up the others after telling the merchants to remain where they are and group together. Uhei and I both left _Mizu Bunshins_ with them on the off chance that there were more shinobi hidden from us.

"When we caught up to Nao and Shiro, we all split up to face a single opponent each. Uhei immediately engaged the Inuzuka and her companion since his specialty is wielding dual butterfly swords. I didn't see what exactly happened, as I was in the middle of my own fight with the Kurama shinobi, but we all heard a howl of anguish. I chanced a glance over and saw that the Inuzuka was bowed over her ninken, somehow Uhei managed to strike the beast down," Asagi continued.

"After that, the Inuzuka girl went beserk. Before anyone even blinked she used her nails to slash his throat open. She barely spared a moment before jumping into the fight between the enemy and Shiro. The two worked together to kill him quickly.

"Prior to that we had all been holding our own for the most part despite the fact they were all jounin from the Leaf, and three-fifths of our lot were only chunnin level. After we lost Uhei though they worked together to bring down each of us using superior numbers and our lowered morale," he quieted down.

The aforementioned Renji began where his comrade left off, "Before long there were three of them attacking Nao all at once. Asagi and I were still fighting our own opponents, but mine got so cocky about how well his teammates were doing that he lowered his guard a bit. I got him with a kunai to the liver—" this was said with no inflection, Ryuu is still amazed at the way people here spoke of homicide so casually, "—and quickly made my way over to Nao. As you can imagine, a chunnin against three jounin from the Leaf… it wasn't going well. I'm surprised he lasted so long against three separate opponents. Especially that distraught Inuzuka," He shook his head sadly.

"Anyway, They were all worse for wear. Nao was panting and he had a huge gash practically all the way through his collarbone! There were plenty of other minor injuries—he was still holding his own though. He had evidently gotten one of them with a Raiton jutsu, the man's hair was singed, and his body was still shaking from the nerve damage.

"The Inuzuka bitch was just being flat out reckless and had numerous lacerations, her blood was being flung _everywhere_ by her jerky movements, too. I saw her use one of her clan jutsu, _Gats_ _ūga_ , but she didn't even try to aim. All she did was make a trench in the ground and level a tree. The last guy had dropped back a bit—probably to use a jutsu or something—but he was holding his weight off of his left leg. I tried to get the drop on him, but he must have felt my intent, because he quickly faced me and parried my attack.

"Well, this continued for another four minutes or so, but then…," Renji stopped for a moment, hesitant to voice his next words, "Then… Nao was so worn down. He got distracted and the man he was fighting somehow brought out a kusarigama and managed to wrap the chain around one of Nao's arms. He dragged Nao forward with the chain, knocking him off kilter, and the Inuzuka took advantage of it to finish him off…" Renji finished quietly.

The room was covered with a blanket of pain. Hisa's eyes closed in defeat as tears leaked down her face silently. Ryuu himself felt as if he had just been punched in the gut, the air whooshed out of his lungs. This couldn't be happening.

Draco knew he would eventually face death, but he hadn't thought it would possibly come so soon— and not once had he expected it to be one of the only people he had come to love and depend on in this strange world. Not even two months ago he was training with his father outside, then laughing together without a care in the world after the sake incident.

Ryuu felt like the memory of that day was mocking him now. How could he have been laughing then, now knowing that his father would die in such a pointless way soon after?

How could he have internally scoffed at his father's plans to go on missions with him when he got older? How could he have wished his father would stop droning on about shaving? Why didn't he cherish those moments more when they happened? Death was a new experience for him, because despite all of the deaths Draco had witnessed, none of them had ever been someone he was close to.

Ryuu knew, he _knew_ , there was always a chance of his father not returning from a mission, so why was he so ill-prepared for this news?

He thought often of his first parents and how dissimilar they were to his current parents. Nao was so lively. Always goofing off—never serious—always gifting his family with that stupid, infectious grin… A grin that he would never again see. All he has are memories now.

Asagi, breaking Ryuu from his pitiful inner monologue, broke the terse silence to finish the story, "The Kurama I was facing managed to trap me in an elaborate genjutsu, despite the training I have had with you, Yamakawa-san," his eyes lowered in shame, "He placed the illusion over me with his kekkei genkai that made me believe I was still fighting him when I wasn't.

"He used that time to kill their objective, destroy my _Mizu Bunshin_ , and retrieve his remaining three comrades. They retreated as I finally got out of the genjutsu, and Renji attempted to tend to Nao rather than pursue. The only way we even found out why we were attacked was because the man from Tani kept a bunch of paperwork in his luggage. Just like a civilian to leave sensitive information in such a defenseless place!" Asagi ranted, "We're lucky the Konoha shinobi didn't have time to search for it, or else we would have remained in the dark."

Renji remarked, "Yeah, after that we traveled with the merchants to the next town on their route, and they allowed us to break our contract for partial payment. We even got a small compensation for Nao, Shiro, and Uhei. More of a pittance though…"

Retrieving a small stack of ryo from his thigh pouch, the younger man placed it on the table. "We're really sorry, Yamakawa-san."

There was a minute of silence before Hisa finally replied, "Thank you, Asagi-san—and you Renji-san."

She paused again, holding her breath as if expecting another blow, and asked, "And the body?"

Ryuu saw Renji glance down in either guilt or regret. Asagi answered her in a stern, but still somehow sympathetic voice, "We took care of the body the same way we would usually dispose of a downed comrade. Renji performed the proper incineration jutsu. We removed his belongings first," he fetched a sealing scroll from his pack and handed it over. "It was an honor to work with a man such as Akazawa Nao."

At this Hisa began sobbing heavily—covering her face with one hand, while gripping the scroll in the other with bruising force. She was shaking so hard that her thin robe began slipping off of her shoulder.

Giving two formal bows that Hisa never saw, the two men replaced their shoes on their feet and left the mother and son alone—presumably to deliver bad news to the next family.

Ryuu shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his mother continued crying. Snot and tears began crawling down the arm she was using to cradle her face, mixing together into a disgusting assortment of bodily fluid. As nauseating as the blonde boy found this, he trampled down his automatic urge to sneer. While he was genuinely upset about Nao's death, he knew that the emptiness he was feeling was nothing compared to the emotions his mother must be experiencing.

Ryuu had never ever met a couple more in love; it was a startling contrast from Narcissa and Lucius whose marriage had been arranged between the Malfoys and the Blacks.

He could see the love Nao and Hisa held for each other in their eyes every time they gazed at each other with those stupid looks on their faces. There were many times he wondered what made two people want to spend so much time together.

He had had his fair share of hormone driven experimentation at Hogwarts, but never before had he felt like he wanted to spend his entire life with another person. He was fully expecting a marriage out of a political match, not love. Of course, he would have liked a girl whom he could stand to be around—one who would hopefully look past his less than stellar record—but he doubted he would ever find someone he could love the way his shinobi parents had loved each other.

At a loss for how to approach his inconsolable mother, Ryuu simply began collecting the empty teacups strewn about the table and carried them to the water basin where he took his time washing them.

When he returned to the table his mother had calmed down considerably. Tears still clung to her long eyelashes, but they were no longer trailing down her face. She was sniffing frequently in a fruitless attempt to prevent anymore snot from collecting on her upper lip.

Looking at Ryuu, Hisa's tears began cascading anew, "Come here, Ryuu-chan. I'm so sorry. Your kaa-san is so selfish."

Tears sprang to his eyes unbidden, but Draco refused to let them fall right now. She needed comfort much more than he did—he shouldn't even be here—his whole life here is unnatural and _what right does he have to grieve for a father who was never really his to begin with_?

Walking up to Hisa, Ryuu crawls onto her lap and readjusts her robe. Forcing himself to not heed the snot that was _everywhere_ he leaned in to embrace her.

Her shoulders began shaking again, but they were dry sobs, thankfully. The beautiful blonde had used all her tears already.

"Kaa-san, let's go lay down. Come on," Ryuu insists. Hisa doesn't resist as he slips off of her lap and walks her back to her room where the futon is. She stares at the room for a moment, probably realizing that it's only _hers_ now, not _theirs_. Ryuu tries not to think about it.

Ryuu lies down first, patting the empty spot next to him.

A few moments later Hisa mechanically removes her snot covered robe in favor of laying down in shorts and a loose top (the mixture of Eastern and Western influences often confuses him).

Not even two minutes later his mother was fast asleep from the emotional exhaustion. Ryuu watched her chest rise and fall over and over. The former Slytherin thanked Merlin that he at least still has her. As long as his mother is still here, he was not alone.

Draco allowed a single tear to slip down his cheek before wiping it away as if it was never there in the first place.

* * *

 **Translations:**

 **Yu no Kuni- Land of Hot Water  
** **Hi no Kuni- Land of Fire  
** **Shimo no Kuni- Land of Frost  
** **Kaminari no Kuni- Land of Lightning  
** **Kumo- Short for Kumogakure, Village Hidden in the Clouds  
** **Nami no Kuni- Land of Waves  
** **Cha no Kuni- Land of Tea  
** **Kawa no Kuni, Kawa- Land of Rivers  
** **Tanigakure- Village Hidden in the Valleys (Land of Rivers' hidden village)**

 **Mizu Bunshin- Water clone  
** **Raiton Bunshin- Lightning clone  
** **Gats** **ū** **ga- Fang Passing Fang  
** **Suiton- Water release  
** **Raiton- Lightning release**

 **Eto/ano- Similar forms of 'umm'  
** **Ojiisan- Grandfather/old man  
** **Ojisan- Uncle/middle aged man  
** **Gaki- brat  
** **Kuso- Damn**

 **Feel free to correct me if I am using any terms incorrectly.**

 **(I really didn't mean to have to list so many translations on here. The part where Nao died just ran away with me~)**

 **A/N: You guys seriously rock! Over a hundred followers after only two updates! I can't even tell you guys how thrilled and honored I am that you are enjoying what I have written so far!**

 **I meant to tell you last chapter, but I'm going to be posting my progress on my profile from now on if you ever want to check and see what point I'm at before the next update! Basically, I'm a lazy asshole.**

 **OH OH OH, and I now have an** _ **amazing**_ **beta guys! His name is** _ **Phoebus Oberon**_ **, so go check out his stuff! He has been helping me out so much! The chapter reading level went from 10th-11th grade level to 11th-12th grade level! *bows head in respect***

 **So, while I pride myself on** _ **trying**_ **to keep things as accurate as possible, know that the throwing method of the kunai I wrote was highly adapted. I have a book on throwing techniques, but it's mostly for shuriken and mentions kunai literally never. Plus all the videos I watched, and articles I read talked about how the ring made it harder to throw and blah blah blah, so a lot of that was a mix of shuriken throwing techniques, knife throwing techniques, and bullshit.**

 **This chapter was originally over 20k, but I still wasn't done writing and I'm not going to post 20k+ in a single chapter. I had to split it up. SO, GOOD NEWS. You'll get another update in a few days!**

 **Btw, I'm going on vacation next Saturday and won't be back until about October 3rd. I'll have internet access, but it's likely that I won't work on the next chapter during that time.**

 **Until the next update!**

 **Fortheloveofb**

 **Fun fact: I was thisssss close *holds thumb and index finger really close together* to naming this fic "Tale of a Gutless Ninja" as a play on words of Jiraiya's book.**

* * *

 **Fanfic rec time! The recommendation theme for this chapter happens to be…. *drumroll* HIDAN! *throws confetti*  
** **So three recs this chapter:**

 **Dirt and Ashes, or: The One-and-a-Half-Body Problem** **by** _ **Tozette**_ **on Ao3  
** **It's one of my very favorite fanfics (and fanfic writers), and it was just completed recently. I'm so sad that it's over T.T**

 **Quotidian** **by** _ **firefly**_ **on ffn  
** **I really love this one! Super angsty. READ ITTTTTT.**

 **And last, but certainly not least:**

 **Religious Artwork** **by** _ **ckret2**_ **on ffn  
** **It's hilarious, so just go check it out. At only 5k, you have no excuse not to give it a read ;) Deidara and Hidan have shenanigans.**

 **Also, the spacing on this site hates me. Please forgive how cluttered the chapter comes out, because no matter how many times I try to adjust it, the spacing just won't change -.-**


	4. Chapter 3

**Posted 01/08/17**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto or Harry Potter franchises**

 **Minor A/N: Translations of various countries, Hidden Villages, other Japanese words, and jutsu are at the bottom of the chapter**

 **Warnings: Gratuitous violence, gore, language, and character deaths**

 **Beta'd by Phoebus Oberon**

 **Chapter 3**

The next week saw his mother moving about in a daze, as if she were on auto pilot. After her initial break down she had yet to shed more tears. When he returned home the day previously, Kino-ojisan came over almost as soon as he heard the news.

Ryuu had been making most of the food during his mother's grieving period, though he could only make the most basic of things. It was almost as if Hisa had lost the will to live, but Ryuu was hoping she would come back to down to earth soon. Honestly, it hurt him to think that he wasn't a good enough reason for her to snap out of it.

At the same time, he felt like it was only proper. He's almost twenty years old now mentally, so why would he need Hisa's comfort and acknowledgement?

The blonde often spends his time outside as of late, especially in the mornings. Most days Ryuu would do his stretches since his mother had stopped doing their morning routine after they got the news.

Ryuu mostly kept to himself during that time. He couldn't help but brood over the fact that this was the same clearing his father had demonstrated the shinobi arts to him, and, aside from that one and only day they had to themselves, Nao would never train him there as they had planned. He knows he will forever hold that day close to his heart, just as he does with the memory of his first birthday with Hisa. He desperately tries to keep those memories from being tainted by tucking them away in a safely guarded area of his mindscape. He doesn't want his bitterness to seep into those precious recollections.

The second and third weeks dragged at a snail's pace. His uncle was dropping by daily, often bringing bentos for the two of them.

Everyday the house felt empty and lifeless, and everyday the emotional tension seemed to grow despite everyone's absolute determination to ignore it. At one point Kino-ojisan finally snapped.

"Imouto! This cannot go on!" He stood in front of his sister resolutely. Hisa appeared to be mildly surprised, as if she hadn't even realized he was there. "I understand your grief, but the way you are treating life right now isn't sustainable. You have a son to think of, do you really think it's fair to him?" The burly man gestured at Ryuu who had been sitting at the low table studying various kanji, but was now watching the exchange avidly.

Hisa stared at Ryuu, but to him it was as if she were staring through him. He grit his teeth. While they were both understandably upset by Nao's death, she was taking the loss way too hard.

Draco knows that he doesn't personally need Hisa, but now he's wondering ' _What if it hadn't have been me?_ ' If the loving couple had a regular baby, not some reincarnated wizard, would Hisa still be acting like this after it's father's death? Utterly ignoring it's existence?

How would it have fared? Surely not well. Ryuu has no delusions that he comes off as a typical two-year-old, so is it the fact that he is so capable of being self-sufficient that led Hisa to act so selfishly? Or was this the inevitable outcome?

As Kino continued to rage and disparage his mother for her irresponsibility to her son, Ryuu hunkered down in his thoughts of the future which had recently plagued his waking thoughts.

How were they to make money now? Did his parents have money put back in case of one of their deaths? Would his mother return to her career as a kunoichi?

Would they have to move? How would this affect Ryuu's future training? Would this occurrence stop his mother from helping him closer to his shinobi career?

Hearing his mother talk, talk with _emotion_ for the first time in weeks he tuned back into his surroundings.

Tears were pouring down her face as she apologized, "I'm so sorry. I'm a terrible mother! It's been weeks and here I am—," she laughed with bitter incredulity, "—just feeling sorry for myself. Some kunoichi I am!"

Kino grimaced a bit in discomfort at her sudden tears, but he remained firm. "True, for the past few weeks you have not been a very good mother, and nothing you do will ever change how you've acted during this time of grief—but that doesn't change the fact that before Nao died you were a wonderful mother and can easily become one again. Now that you've acknowledged that the way you've been acting is unhealthy and unacceptable we can move on, but first I think you owe Ryuu-chan a personal apology."

This time when Hisa faced him she was looking _at_ him not through him.

Her eyes stared at him sadly, though he didn't know whether it was from seeing Ryuu's bagged eyes, her guilt at how she had been treating him, or perhaps because of the traits the boy shared with his deceased father.

She slowly made her way over to him with a shaky gait, and dropped to her knees in front of him.

Hisa stroked his loose hair out of his face and said, "I am so sorry, baby boy. Kaa-san hasn't been very good to you these past few weeks. I promise I'll make it up to you." Her tears had dried, but the salty tracks were still etched on her cheeks.

Although her lips trembled, Hisa's eyes showed that she would be working towards acceptance of her lover's death and regaining her family's trust.

Ryuu nodded resolutely at her apology and silent promise. "Just don't let it happen again. We missed you, Kaa-san."

After what he liked to think of as 'the talk', his mother acted considerably better. She was there, in the present with him, but her eyes were still dead and her smiles still empty. She was trying though.

Still, it was preferable to the way she had been. Ryuu was confident that in time he could help her smiles reach her eyes again; to help her see the joy of living again the way that she and Nao had done for him.

Things could only get better from here. They would heal together.

* * *

Ryuu was awoken suddenly by Hisa shaking his shoulder urgently.

Draco was immediately on high alert, his mother had been doing better these past few weeks but nightmares of her dead husband haunted the poor woman.

She became more clingy than usual after Nao's death really sank in.

He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but she placed her hand over his mouth before he could utter a sound. Looking at her in increasing trepidation, he saw her bring a finger up to her lips telling him to stay quiet.

In a whisper that he had to strain to hear she said, "There are two shinobi trying to break into the house," Ryuu's eyes widened in alarm, "I'm going to place a genjutsu over you. Stay here, I'm going to draw them outside. With luck they may not even know you're here."

At this Ryuu shook his head frantically. As if he didn't know a stupid martyr when he saw one.

"Don't worry sweetheart, kaa-san is an excellent kunoichi. I love you. I'll be back before you know it," Hisa assured him lowly. Wasting no time, she removed her hand from his mouth and flashed through a short series of hand seals. Once Ryuu felt the chakra lingering around him, Hisa nodded as she examined her work. "That will have to do. Stay here and don't make a sound. This may be harsh, but you will be more of a hinderance than a help, Ryuu-chan! I mean it!" She hissed seriously.

He blinked and she was gone. Not even ten seconds later, Ryuu heard an explosion near the opposite end of the house. It was apparent to him that Hisa was giving up her surprise advantage in order to make sure they don't find him.

Confident in his mother's illusion, Ryuu scrambled to his feet and ran toward the sliding window closest to the explosion.

It didn't take him long to traverse the small house and reach the otherside. Fortunately, or possibly unfortunately, the explosion had made a hole in their home's southern wall. Which, admittedly, wasn't too difficult with the flimsy shoji screens. Peeking out he saw that a large portion of their engawa got destroyed in the blast as well.

Looking beyond the splintered engawa, three figures were spaced out about eight meters from where Ryuu was observing them. Hisa with one man on either side of her at different angles. The men, who were closer to the house than Hisa, were positioned to her in such a way that they made a rough triangle.

"Heh. So you're 'Hot Water's Compassionate Death', huh? You're not much for subtlety," one of the men said. Ryuu could see his profile, even though it was fairly dark outside. The man had slate grey hair that was loose all the way down to his lower back, but that's about all he could tell. Ryuu could practically hear the grin in his voice.

The young blonde wondered to himself why his mother would have a name like that. Hisa didn't particularly like to talk about her personal history as a kunoichi, she was much more interested in Ryuu's future. He had a feeling that despite how good she was, as Nao had often bragged, that his mother wasn't particularly suited to such a violent lifestyle.

She seemed much more suited as a mother, but then again Ryuu was extremely biased.

He was brought back to the present when Hisa replied stonily, "I haven't been the 'Compassionate Death' in years. I'm retired."

The first man laughed loudly, "That doesn't mean that you don't have a bounty of 6 million ryo though. Retired or not, you're head is worth quite a bit of money!"

In the little amount of light from the quarter moon he saw Hisa's mouth tightened into a thin line.

"How did you find this place?" She demanded, maintaining a defensive posture.

The second man answered in a voice that was much less emotive than his partner, "Don't you worry your pretty little head about it. It's not as if the information would do you much good anyway. You'll be dead within the hour." He was standing in the shadow of a tree, Ryuu could hardly make him out at all.

How were they supposed to fight in this immense darkness? It had to be almost 4 AM.

"Heh. Yeah, that 'pretty little head' of yours will be disconnected from your shoulders soon enough," the grey-haired man quipped, as if he had told some hilarious joke. No one laughed.

The man sighed, "Tough crowd. Might as well get this over with, ehh?" A water sword materialized in his hand. A wakizashi is Ryuu's memory is to be trusted.

The boy was surprised that the man hadn't needed hand seals, and at the speed with which it had coalesced in his hand. While his father had talked about lessening the number of seals, he made it sound as if it was fairly difficult. Not to mention, Nao's water whip had taken fifteen seconds to form, and this man's sword had only taken about three. He had to have been an accomplished shinobi despite his playful demeanor.

"Give me a minute with her to get warmed up, I doubt she'll give us much trouble," the swordsman ordered cockily.

Apparently used to his partner's ways, the stoic man waved a hand as if to say 'go have your fun', and stepped back a few meters to watch.

Deciding to take the fight to him, Hisa withdrew her tanto from the back sheath she had slipped on over her nightclothes and launched into an offensive combo of strikes towards the man's neck and torso.

He was unconcerned as he blocked every blow with ease, and he had no problem switching from defending to attacking within seconds. Hisa was suddenly on the defensive as she tried to fend against the onslaught of the superior swordsman.

Unfortunately, every time Hisa's tried to block the wakizashi with her own weapon it traveled right through it, the blade of water remaining intact after every attempted blow and repeatedly coming within centimeters of making contact with her body. Quickly abandoning the use of her tanto, his mother retreated into a backward flip instead.

The man was disinclined to let her get away quite that easily though, especially since she her showed her weakness to his water sword. He pressed his advantage once he was in range with a thrust toward her chest. It slid right between her ribs and into her ribcage.

She abruptly burst into water. She had, at some point, replaced herself with a water clone. Ryuu released a breath he didn't realize he had been holding.

Hisa materialized behind the grey haired man and returned the favor as she impaled him through the chest with her tanto… to no effect.

At first Ryuu thought that, like his mother, the man had swapped places with a back-up water clone, but unlike his mother's _Mizu Bunshin_ this one didn't burst. He casually stepped away from Hisa and turned to face her. Everywhere the tanto touched turned to water.

The man was grinning nastily, finally illuminated by the fading moonlight. His eyes were a dark green, and his teeth were pointed like a shark's, and his bangs were tied back behind his head. ' _Is that really natural here?_ ' he couldn't help but wonder to himself, staring at the sharp teeth. His outfit was basic shinobi gear that was threadbare from use, with arm and leg warmers that Ryuu found horrifically tacky.

"The hydrification technique. You're a Hōzuki?" His mother questioned.

"Right you are, Yamakawa-san," he smugly informed her, taking a leisurely drink of water from the bottle at his side.

Hisa frowned at this revelation.

Ryuu didn't know what the clan name meant to her, but if he could, seemingly, turn parts of his body into water at will… well, that was an issue. How could she target a man who was, for all intents and purposes, made of water?

The only thing Ryuu could think of is to use a fire technique to evaporate the body made of water, but seeing as fire is weak to water that probably wouldn't work. Besides the fact that he knew his mother didn't have a single katon jutsu in her arsenal.

Ryuu glanced to the other man, whom continued watching the fight boredly. The two's casual way of treating the fight with Hisa rather unnerved him. Did they really believe that she was so outclassed, or were they just underestimating her abilities?

Seconds later, Hisa darted away from the house and into the trees surrounding the yard, undoubtedly trying to lead the missing nin away from Ryuu.

Ryuu stood stock still for another few moments before bursting into a flurry of motion.

Pacing back and forth he spoke aloud to himself, in English no less, " _I won't allow myself to stand here and do nothing. As a toddler untrained in the shinobi arts I would be a liability, as mother said… but if I concentrate hard enough surely I could use magic to help her? That would be helpful,"_ He continued, making exaggerated hand gestures to work off some of his nervous energy, " _But what spell should I use? A tripping jinx so that it looks like a mistake she could take advantage of or should I go for something like_ petrificus totalus _that would be blatant?"_

Yet as he contemplates this he knows deep down it won't be that easy. His magic hasn't cooperated with him since he has been in his new body. Even as Draco, wandless casting had never been something he was accomplished in.

Trying to ignore these facts, he quashed his doubts, knowing that his mother could very well die this night. ' _No, not so soon. Not when I just got her back. Not when I just lost Nao.'_ Ryuu slid down the wall he was leaning against and curled into a ball, covering his head with his small arms. Concentrating, he attempted to get his magic to obey him.

He desperately pulled at it, trying to force it to expand from his core. It was unmoved and, if anything, condensed even further. Trying a different approach he focused his intent, trying to use a basic levitation spell on a piece of loose debris nearby. Theoretically, since it was one of the very first spells he had mastered previously it would be easier to cast wandlessly.

He blocked out the fact that failing this could have dire consequences. He stared at the wooden shrapnel and will it to _float_. It _has_ to float. It _will_ rise off the ground.

Ryuu isn't sure how long he stared at that piece of wood, but it couldn't have been more than ten minutes. It never budged. He could sense his magic pulsating, but never stretching far from the core. He could feel his frustration mounting, but ultimately he was broken out of his concentration by the sounds of battle once again closing in on his home.

He scrambled to the opening of the wall staring out at the dark grounds that were gradually lightening. The blonde could hear them but he still couldn't see them.

The small child couldn't help the flinch when his mother came hurtling out of the trees to skid across the ground before stopping in a heap. Her head snapped over to look toward where he was, and jumped back to her feet—surprisingly graceful after being flung across the yard. Hisa evidently forced herself to drag her attention back to both of her opponents, which was probably for the best.

Ryuu wanted to help, but he had to remind himself that he's not yet a shinobi, nor is he a wizard any longer. He's midway between the two. He knows a large amount of both practical and theoretical magic, but he can no longer use the physical aspects. Decidedly different, he has some working knowledge of shinobi arts, very little physical application, and no where near enough experience—or physical frame—to be able to put any chakra or other shinobi techniques to practical use. Especially in a fight of this magnitude.

It would be like him walking out of Ollivander's with his newly bought wand to jump into a fight between Death Eaters and the Aurors with only his book knowledge to aid him. Idiotic, and naive.

The most he could do right now, as much as he hates it, is have faith in his mother.

It wasn't exactly an easy thing to do at the moment. Ryuu can already feel the tears of frustration gathering at the corners of his eyes, blurring the backyard into random blobs of darkness. He wipes at his eyes furiously, watching as the two pursuers leap out of the woodwork to engage Hisa once again.

Not one to remain idle, he continued tearing at his core, trying to get his magic to do something, _anything_ , besides doing _nothing._

His ears perked as he heard his mother speaking to the two missing nins. Glad that, at the very least, she was still alive and able to continue the battle.

"What's the point of this? Why are Kiri nin out and about collecting bounties?" Hisa questioned—her irritation evident at the way the fight was turning out.

"We aren't Kiri shinobi anymore. Do you see any headbands?" The Hozuki asked caustically.

"Don't take it personally, we simply need the money. Think about it this way, if you die, then two others will live—us. That's a nice trade-off, right?" The brunette deadpanned.

The unusually serious blonde gritted her teeth. "So why did you leave Kiri? You're traitors then? One Hōzuki, and one Kaguya. Perhaps if I cut off _your_ heads I could get a nice bounty instead."

"Quite the opposite, Mizu no Kuni betrayed us, not the other way around!" The grey haired man barked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hisa questioned skeptically.

"About half a year ago our Mizukage underwent a large shift of opinion. There was already a general distrust of kekkei genkai users after my clan foolishly warred with Kiri years ago," the man, apparently from the Kaguya clan, explained, "and now Yondaime-sama decided rather suddenly that those of us with bloodline limits are a threat to the rest of the people of Mizu no Kuni."

"Yeah, and then after that he urged the people of Mizu no Kuni to slaughter the lot of us! Bloodline shinobi, and even civilians of bloodline clans, have been ditching Kiri by the thousands!" The grey haired nin interrupted with an indignant scowl. "My family has been reduced to less than thirty and have scattered so far that I would have no idea where to start looking for them even if I wanted to."

At this point he was hardly concentrating on his magic at all, as intent as he was on the conversation outside.

"The Yondaime Mizukage assigned multiple platoons of hunter nin to go out and exterminate any of us they can find with extreme prejudice. They're paid by the head quite handsomely as well. While many kekkei genkai users have chosen to hole up together on outlying islands in Mizu no Kuni and rebel, quite a few of us have left the country all together."

Ryuu involuntarily shuddered, the Mizukage's frame of mind sounded eerily similar to the Dark Lord's ideologies. This, _this,_ is why he had always been relieved that he would never have to live under a Kage's reign.

This Mizukage was abusing his power to order the shinobi under his command to commit genocide. He hoped he would never have the misfortune of meeting the man.

"We have to earn a living somehow, it's nothing personal," the larger man said, shrugging.

"Oh, that must sting," Hisa taunted, "Being run out of your country during bloodline purges despite the fact that your kekkei genkai hasn't manifested—and likely never will."

"We share our hardships with you and yet you mock us?"

Ryuu gave up on his magic for now, deciding instead to peek back outside. He had a feeling things were about to pick up again.

"Excuse me if I don't feel sympathetic toward two men that are here to kill me," She raised a brow, "While I do not feel the same way as the Mizukage, you surely aren't showing me a very good side of bloodline users."

Taking advantage of the lull in the conversation, Hisa quickly flicked two kunai toward either man, causing two explosions seconds later. Unfortunately, the ex-Kiri nin dodged them handily.

The grey haired man sneered, "Seems like you're tiring, kunoichi. Maybe if we—" Splash! The Kaguya had slashed the Hōzuki across the stomach with his kunai. "What the—"

The brunette nin was on his partner within seconds, absolutely wrecking him with heavy handed taijustu. After getting his bearings, the Hōzuki began defending himself properly, alternatively cursing and asking his partner what he was doing.

After about thirty seconds, the slighter man seemed to realize what was happening, scowling murderously in his mother's direction. When the next kick came his way, he caught the limb in both hands.

There was a gasp before the Kaguya stopped dead in his tracks.

"How could you get caught up in an illusion so bad that you would attack me?!" The Hōzuki asked derisively.

Even through the monotone Ryuu could hear the twinge of embarrassment, "She's a genjutsu mistress for a reason. That was no simple illusion," he was watching Hisa warily, "It was a layered genjutsu. Not two layers, but three. After breaking the first two, I mistakenly assumed that there were no more. The first was an obvious one that all jonin would easily find and dispel, followed by a second one that was almost too difficult to escape from. I was completely disoriented by it, and never realized there was a third illusion meant to confuse friend from foe. If you hadn't disrupted my pathways it would have taken me a long time to notice it."

"Just don't be fooled again, ya great lug. I'd hate to have to kill you and try to find a new partner," He joked, or at least, Ryuu thought he was joking.

"Anyway, that was a tactical error on your part," the grey haired man continued mockingly. "Haven't you figured out by now that that sort of stuff just won't cut it? I'm pretty hard to kill. You should have gone for my buddy instead. What a waste of chakra."

The toddler couldn't see Hisa's face since she was turned almost completely away from him, but it must have shown something because the Hōzuki's face went from unbearably smug to vaguely disconcerted in seconds.

"I'll take that under advisement."

Just as the Kaguya darted forward to engage her, and his partner tensed to spring into action, a fourth figure appeared behind the missing nins.

It was another Hisa.

Sensing the enemy behind him, the Hōzuki span on the spot creating a water sword in his hand in moments. 'Hisa' brought up her kunai to block, but the water sword passed right through it, unharmed and undeterred. The bunshin, since it must be a bunshin, barely danced out of the way.

The grey haired nin smirked, slashing again. The strange thing though was the moment before the sword hit her, Hisa's clone smirked back.

With a bright flash and a hoarse scream, Hisa's Raiton bunshin dispelled on the water sword, electrocuting the Hōzuki—whose body appeared to start dripping, looking droopy and malformed.

He let out a guttural groan as he slid to his knees.

During the Kaguya's moment of distraction, the real Hisa flashed through a few signs and shot out a thin stream of pressurized water. The man narrowly dodged, rolling out of the way before Hisa dropped the technique. The man jumped back even further.

While he was a fair distance away, Hisa used a second set of signs. The Hōzuki crumpled to the ground.

The brunette hissed. "That damn genjutsu!" He made to dart over to his fallen comrade, but before he could a literal wave of water made its way toward him.

The man scoffed even as the wave obscured Ryuu's view of him.

"Don't think so little of me. I may not have my clan's sought after bloodline, but I am a water user."

Though he couldn't see what exactly happened, the water wave stopped short and collapsed harmlessly between the two remaining fighters. Hisa was breathing heavily. Even with her large reserves, they had been going for at least twenty minutes now, on top of all of the jutsu she employed.

No longer bothering with talking, the burly brunette attacked like a shark scenting blood in the water.

The furious blows back and forth were impossible for him to keep up with. He heard pained exclamations from both parties, but he could clearly see his mother struggling to keep up.

He felt a stab of guilt, though he knew it wasn't truly his fault. She was out of shape, and out of practice because of him. She would have been doing better if she had kept up with more than a bare minimum of training.

A thud and a crack was heard as Hisa went airborne from the Kaguya's front kick.

Ryuu's heart was thumping in his chest as he watched her stand once again to face the ex-Kiri nin. She stood tall and firm, even while holding a hand to her damaged ribs.

"Come on, kunoichi. Time to give up. You've just about had it."

"That's not—" she gasped painfully "—going to happen." She grimaced.

"Hn. Maybe not," The Kaguya said neutrally.

He muffled an alarmed squeak when he saw the deformed Hōzuki take shape behind his mother's back, half-assed water sword in hand. Before he had the presence of mind to call out a warning, the grey haired man had stabbed Hisa into her back and out through her ribcage. It was over within seconds.

Though she was not facing him he heard her soft exhale of 'oh' before he watched her body hit the ground with a thump, no longer supported by the dissolved water sword.

The liquified ninja kicked her body over onto it's back. "Yep, she's gone. The life has already left her eyes," The man chuckled lowly. "She was a bitch to kill though! Thanks for getting me out of that, by the way. How did you do it?"

The Kaguya grunted. "It was for getting me out of it earlier, that's all. When Yamakawa made the water wave I made a mizu bunshin when it was too high for her to see over. The bunshin got released you from it." His partner hummed in acknowledgement.

He felt his heart stop. The early morning air took on a lucid quality as all he had ever known ended. Ryuu tried to regulate his breathing. Hisa is dead. His mother is dead. The worst part was the thought that shadowed his mind, as anger and resentment danced over it, Ryuu wondered if Nao still lived, whether his mother would have fought just a bit harder to stay alive.

How did things go so horribly wrong?

He was trying so hard to not make noise and stay unnoticed. The genjutsu Hisa placed on him is gone now, so he can't continue watching what's happening outside or he would risk being seen. Not that there was any point anymore. He could still hear the two talking though.

"Do you even know where the nearest bounty station is, Kagaro?" That was the Hōzuki speaking.

"Not the nearest ones. I know one that's in Kawa though." The Kaguya replied. "You should focus on recovering right now, she did a number on you. You're not even fully formed yet."

Ryuu heard the Hōkuzi scoff. "Fully formed enough to make the killing blow though. And Kawa is ages away! We hardly have any food or supplies left!"

"We will have to make due. We should leave soon, we don't know when someone else may come by this w—" the Kaguya's voice cut off abruptly. The unmistakable thump of a body hitting the ground reached his ears.

"What the fuck?!" The remaining bloodline nin exhaled through his mouth sharply. Ryuu heard a distinct note of panic.

Deciding to risk a peek, Ryuu glanced around the corner.

The Hōzuki was facing away from him scanning the area defensively. He had a sword formed in his hand once again, but it was obvious that he hadn't recovered from Hisa's Raiton clone yet—which caused Ryuu a surge of vindictive pleasure. His form was still looking deformed and dripping.

Ryuu's eyes widened when he saw that the Kaguya was face-down in the grass with a kunai in the base of his neck, more than likely dead.

His pink eyes flicked around one more time before he ducked his head back into the house. Knowing there were even more ninja in the area solidified Ryuu's decision to wait out the fighting. The boy couldn't help but hope it was his uncle coming to dispose of the Kiri nin though.

His brain was working overtime in an attempt to analyze every sound that hit his ears. He could easily hear the ragged breaths of the Hōzuki, and the sound of water dripping from the jutsu of the previous fight.

Seconds felt like minutes as he strained his hearing to the limits. He heard the Hōzuki leap away from his previous position with a 'hah!'

The grey haired man snorted and drawled in a falsely relaxed voice, "Oh, you three again. I thought we left you behind back in Hi no Kuni."

There was no reply back, in fact if the man hadn't said anything, he wouldn't have known anyone else was there at all. He certainly couldn't hear them.

Another voice broke the silence in quite a similar drawl, "You might as well give up. Your piece of scum partner is dead, and you're already at a disadvantage since you're injured."

"Yeah, I'll definitely give up. It only means that I'll die, right?" The Hōzuki asked scathingly. "Ah, well, we kicked your asses once, and I'm sure I can do it again."

"Don't speak so highly of yourself," a feminine voice spoke, "You may have gotten a few hits in, but I'm sure everyone here remembers that both of you were focused on escaping rather than fighting. Besides, you didn't even kill a single one of us, that's hardly something to brag about."

"Less talking, more killing," a third, gravelly voice broke in.

"Jeez, you take all the fun out of pre-battle banter! Why are you in charge again?!" The voice of the first newcomer asked sounding irritated.

"Shut up, idiot! Let's get this damn Hōzuki, and then we can go home with some good money!" The feminine voice said. Ryuu will tentatively guess that it is, in fact, a female.

He closed his eyes in an attempt to make a mental map of where each of the shinobi were. The Hōzuki was the closest to him, while the other three were farther away, but the presumed female had sounded closer than the other two.

Suddenly there were no more words, just the sound of moving bodies, grunts, thuds, and splashing water.

"Don't stab him you useless sack of shit! Didn't you learn anything from our last fight?!"

The Hōzuki cackled. There was a muffled thump and a 'watch it'!

Then—

"He's going for the body!"

Ryuu's heart leapt in his chest as he imagined the sharp toothed man leaping for his mother's lifeless body in his mind's eye.

"Shit!"

"Stop him!"

"He liquified! He's escaping!"

Unable to handle the suspense he peeked once again to survey the battlefield. The one who sounded feminine was lithe, with a long dark blue braid of hair—lending more credence to his theory of her gender.

She was standing, silhouetted by the last dregs of moonlight and the slowly emerging sun, over Hisa's body to prevent the missing nin from escaping with what he came for, but her most notable feature—or non-feature?—was the mask that covered her face. On the forehead of her mask were four diagonal, wavy lines, a mark that Ryuu recognized from his studies as the sign of Kirigakure shinobi—the same place that the two missing nin were from.

These must be the 'hunter-nin' the dead Kaguya had mentioned. That's why they killed him and are trying to kill the Hōzuki. These are the people under the Mizukage's orders to kill their fellows because of their bloodlines.

While Ryuu was glad that the three newcomers are taking care of the missing nin, he's still a bit apprehensive about being saved by people who he couldn't help but equate to Death Eaters in the most literal way.

Taking in all of this within seconds Ryuu's eyes roved to the next figure. It was a large man, he would bet 5,000 ryo that that is the man with the husky voice that had hardly spoken. The man was facing away from him, so he couldn't tell if he was wearing a similar mask to the woman, but he was currently sprinting after a formless mass of water that was cutting across the grassy area at an incredible pace.

The water, no doubt the Hōzuki, looked to be heading for the stream that was at the very back of the property. The stream that eventually met up with the only river in the country of Yu no Kuni. If the Hōzuki made it that far then there was no way he would be caught.

The last figure was a lean man with a head of long, brown spikes whose face was also covered by the mask. He was the farthest away from Ryuu currently.

The shinobi was coming in toward the Hōzuki from a different direction than his partner, probably in an attempt to trap him between them, but before he could see what would happen, the two and the formless water had disappeared into a thicker mass of trees.

Knowing there was nothing else to see he ducked back inside.

Thinking back on their outfits, the two masks he could see had slightly different designs in different solid colors, but were similar enough that you could tell they were a part of a group. It reminded him of the shinobi with masks he had seen on his first birthday. Perhaps every country has a branch of shinobi that wear masks?

The trio were also in similar uniforms to the men he had encountered on his birthday. Breastplates over standard shinobi pants, dark long-sleeved shirts, shin and arm guards.

Ryuu spent the next few minutes with his eyes closed, his adrenaline thankfully preventing him from falling asleep standing up.

Not too much later he heard the voice of the sardonic man from earlier.

"Those damn Hōzuki. Impossible to kill," he grumbled petulantly, "They're gonna skin our balls when we get back."

"Speak for yourself, I don't have balls to skin," the (now confirmed) kunoichi scoffed, flipping her braid over her shoulder. "I assume he got away from you, then?"

"Yeah, the slippery shit made it to a stream in the back. It was impossible to get him after that," the man admitted, albeit grudgingly. Ryuu decided to refer to the man as Spike, after his hairstyle, until he had an actual name for him.

"Well, Mizukage-sama will be pleased with the Kaguya's head, I'm sure," the kunoichi, who Ryuu now dubbed as Blue, assured in a less-than-confident voice.

"Don't presume to know what Mizukage-sama wants," the largest man grunted. ' _His new name will be Goyle,'_ Draco decreed, ' _He's huge and quiet, just like Greg. Seems slightly bloodthirsty too.'_

"So are we just about done with this rotation or should we continue on after the Hōzuki?" Spike redirected, "I'm about ready to head back home. Tracking him now would be a guessing game until we could find his new trail."

"We will return to Kiri. If Yondaime-sama wants us to continue searching for the Hōzuki then we will, but it is more likely that he will send us after a more immediate threat."

"Yosh, taichou! Only a few more days until we can eat some real food!" Spike cheers, enthusiastically.

Blue hummed, "I'm quite ready to eat some noodles myself. First thing after our report I'm going to that new soba stand!"

"First we have to collect the head of the Kaguya and destroy the body," Goyle reminds his subordinates.

"Of course, of course," Ryuu can imagine Spike waving a hand airily, "but that won't take too fuckin' long."

"Watch your language! There _is_ a child present after all..."

At this rather abrupt statement, Ryuu's stomach dropped and his heart began beating so loudly that he was sure if they didn't know he was there before they could certainly hear him now.

Since it was fruitless to hide his presence any longer he attempted to flee through the house, despite realizing how futile his flight was. It wouldn't feel right unless he at least tried.

He still whole heartedly believed in his 'flight before fight' motto.

However, he barely made it three meters before someone had a constricting grip on his arms. He couldn't see who was behind him, but the shinobi lead him outside over the destruction of his home to where the other two masked shinobi were waiting.

The one who was holding him must have been the big meaty one, because Blue—who had called him out—was looking right at him, and Spike was busy sealing away the head of the dead Kaguya.

"Well, what's your name kid?" The blue haired woman asked.

Ryuu was rightly terrified, but he had the presence of mind to understand that if he didn't answer the way they wanted he would likely be killed as well.

He had to make himself seem useful—if information was all they wanted he had no trouble providing it. It wasn't like they could use the information against him, his mother and father were already dead.

"I'm Yamakawa Ryuu. This is my home," Draco said quietly, doing his best not to fidget. While he may have been on par with them mentally, physically he was at a major disadvantage in both size and experience, so he would go along with this for now.

The woman squatted down level with him—probably to seem less threatening, but it wasn't helping much with her creepy mask staring at him impassively.

"And how old are you, Ryuu-chan?" She asked.

"I'll be three in August," he answered honestly, stopping himself from frowning in distaste at the cutesy honorific.

"Do you know who this woman is?" Blue made a vague gesture to the body lying farther away from them.

He glanced, even though he knew what he would see. He looked away almost immediately, he didn't want to remember Hisa like that.

Eyes watering he answered through gritted teeth, "That's my kaa-san, Hisa Yamakawa."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the woman cooed in false sympathy, "Do you know why she was attacked, Ryuu-chan?"

At this Ryuu paused. He knew the missing nin came after her for her bounty, but he didn't particularly want these people to take advantage of that fact.

"They… said she had a name? Like 'Compassionate' something," he mumbled. He didn't think they would be able to do much with that, but to his horror he was wrong.

The woman turned to look at the Spike who was sitting on top of the now headless body. Ryuu blanched in disgust, though he was hardly pained that the man was dead. It was still an unnerving sight.

The man was flipping through a small book apparently looking for something specific before he stopped and tapped a page with his finger.

"Here it is!" He said giddily. "The kid said his family name is Yamakawa, right? This entry in the bingo book is Yamakawa Hisa. 'Hot Water's Compassionate Death'. I've never heard of her, but her bounty is 6 million ryo!"

The woman stood up from her crouch and went to take a look, ignoring the headless body the man was using as a seat.

Seemingly in agreement that this was the same woman she nodded and moved to sit against the closest tree.

The man laughed in delight, "We can take her in for her bounty and we didn't even have to do the work! Those bloodline scum took care of it for us, and the other one ran away without the body. The pay is going to be amazing!"

Ryuu felt his stomach drop at Spike's gleeful voice.

"Excellent. So we can stop by a bounty station on the way home, and get money for the Kaguya's head as well once we are back in Kiri. This turned out to be a worthwhile hunt," the kunoichi put in with thinly veiled satisfaction. Blue tucked her hands behind her head as she leaned back against a tree, and glanced at Ryuu.

"Thanks kid, you've been a real help," she said.

She raised her voice to speak with her largest comrade, "You hear that?"

The man grunted in the affirmative.

"Who'll do the honors then?"

The leader stood up and strode over to Hisa's body, not bothering to answer. Realizing what was about to happen, Ryuu made a move to run and stop the man—"Wait! What are you—?!"—but the kunoichi caught him around the middle before he even took his first step. He watched in a sort of mute horror.

Seemingly uncaring that the woman's son was _right there_ , the man used his kodachi to expertly remove her head from her shoulders, before quickly sealing it into a scroll labeled 'head'.

There was a low whistle. "Wow, you didn't even get blood on your clothes this time Migi—ouch!" Spike rubbed the back of his head that was not covered by the mask, before presumably glaring at the only kunoichi of the group. "What was that for?!"

"No names you idiot!" Blue hissed as she released Ryuu. He fell to all fours, staring at Hisa's body.

"Oh, my bad. I doubt the gaki even heard it, anyway. I mean, look at him." The two turned to look at him before facing each other again.

"That doesn't change the fact that it's protocol. No names," she snapped.

"Can I just call you Blue Bitch, then?" Another smack. "Stop hitting me!"

The two continued on arguing like an old married couple, but Ryuu took no notice as their voices rolled right over him. He couldn't take his wide eyes off of his mother's headless form.

After a few minutes of the two bickering he tuned back in as he was mentioned.

"So, what should we do with the kid?" The talkative man asked of the others.

"Why don't we take him with us? He could grow up to be a powerful asset," the kunoichi suggested.

The two turned to look at their undisputed leader, but he didn't reply as he continued to clean the little amount of blood off of his kodachi.

They exchanged a look before the male shrugged. The hunter-nin continued discussing his fate amongst themselves as he watched the two silently, still in a state of numb shock.

"Well, it _would_ be a shame to not raise the child of such an accomplished kunoichi into the same profession—"

"It might be seen as compensation for letting the Hōzuki get away—"

"And there _have_ been a lot of citizens fleeing so another recruit could only help—"

"Yeah, _or_ it could be seen as us bringing an extra mouth to feed into a war torn country—"

"Well, it's not like Hot Water will provide him training—"

"Maybe we should just kill him, I don't want to deal with a crying two-year-old, regardless of his future promise—"

"Enough," 'Migi' broke in, "We will take him with us, and if the Yondaime doesn't approve, we will dispose of him. That's that." The man obviously couldn't care less that he was talking about the blonde's death as if he weren't there to hear it. He probably thought Ryuu was too young to understand the implications of his words, but unfortunately for both of them Ryuu understood his meaning perfectly.

Spike saluted him in a purposefully mocking way and intoned, "Aye, aye captain!"

A flash of movement.

Before another thought had a chance to form, whether it be about his mother or his possibly non-existent future, the world faded to black.

* * *

The musky scent of wet wood and wild flowers gradually roused the new orphan from his slumber as his brain attempted to puzzle out where he was. He didn't recognize anything around him. Which is to be expected, his first two and a half years had been spent in the same small area, after all.

Ryuu sat up groggily before the events of the previous night came rushing to the forefront of his mind. Without warning he twisted to the side, and threw up pure bile on the wet, dirt-packed ground beside him. No one bothered to glance in his direction.

Ryuu's gaze slowly swiveled toward his captors who were settled around a small, smokeless campfire eating what looked like field rations, and murmuring to each other over a map pointing out the various routes they could take—though he wasn't nearly close enough nor knowledgeable enough to decipher anything written on it.

He felt numb to it all. Two months ago he had a mother and father, and now he was an orphan. A kidnapped orphan whose captors decapitated Hisa right in front of him for the sake of money.

Ryuu knew that dying was not their fault but he felt a bit of resentment at Hisa and Nao for abandoning him to this fate. He had grown complacent, content, even happy, with his lot in this new life; sure that his parents would always be there to teach him and guide him in, what he viewed as, a heartless world with little morality.

Draco thought of his parents, he thought of the small warm house they had lived in together, he remembered his mother's kind smile—the small way she would always laugh when his father made a stupid joke. The boy remembered his father, the moon reflected in his pupiless eyes as memories of Nao's infectious laughter sprung to mind. He remembered his parents, the people who taught him to live, love, to laugh—things he never realized he was missing in his first life. Draco began to cry silently.

He distantly wondered if this was how Potter had felt the day he realized that he was truly alone, lost in a world that had taken everything from him.

As his eyes drifted around the clearing, Ryuu noticed that the foreign shinobi had left him a small bar of dehydrated field rations next to his resting spot.

He snapped it up, and scarfed it down despite the impossibly dry texture and less-than-desirable taste. When the bar was gone he couldn't help but look around for a second one. One small ration bar was hardly enough for him.

Ryuu had no idea how long he slept for, but like most children he counted his days in meals and his last was dinner the night before the attack. If he had to guess it's been at least two days, because he felt as though his stomach was eating itself—he was so _hungry_.

Fortune had always favoured the former Slytherin with food, and such hunger, in a literal way, was a new sensation to him. One that the blonde would rather not be familiar with.

One of the masked shinobi was watching him. It was Blue, who had suggested taking him with them in the first place.

She looked down at her ration bar and broke off half of it.

Walking over she gently shoved it in his hand, "Take it. This is all we're having for now. We won't be eating any type other food until we're back in our country, so get used to it."

Her tone was harsh, but her manner was softened compared to her previous crude behavior. He detected the pity she felt for him—probably from the well earned guilt of what they put him through—and fought back a sneer. However, he wasn't going to refuse such an offering. He knows how to play people.

Ryuu looked up at her with round, watery eyes still puffy from crying, "Thank you, kunoichi-san!" He injected his words with as much gratitude as he could muster, making sure to take advantage of his cute appearance to maximize the effect.

He practically saw the moment she melted. Internally, he smirked. The motherly types are so easy to manipulate.

He wished he could see her face, but he could tell she had hardened as she said, "Don't get used to it, twerp. You best get some more sleep, there's going to be rough traveling ahead for you in the morning, and we can't afford to have you slow us down."

From across the camp he could hear the slender man whine, "I still think we should just kill 'im. He's no use to us. Maybe we can sell him to one of those child dealers."

Ryuu couldn't deny the pang of panic that went up his spine as he straightened up, ready to bolt after even hearing the suggestion—despite the fact he knew he would probably be recaptured within seconds.

The kunoichi swiftly swiveled on her feet to glare at him through her mask and hissed at him. Apparently deciding not to reply to her comrade's suggestion she turned back to him and assured Ryuu firmly, "We're _not_ going to do that. Where we come from we are in dire need of capable shinobi. With such good genes, you're bound to become an excellent addition to our military one day."

He nodded at her words, though the idea repulses him. There are only so many options for Ryuu presently, and if he wants to remain alive for any length of time, the best course of action is to go along with the three Kiri nin. His parents are dead—the thought causes another twinge in his chest—so he has no support base other than his uncle, who is typically away from home on missions more often than not. Kino-ojisan was like the distant uncle that was only around a few days every few months, and while Ryuu was fond of him, he didn't actually look at him as 'family.'

Hisa and Nao had wormed their way into his heart with a mixture of love, lengthy exposure, and baby hormones, but his mother's older brother was just too far removed to be considered more than a friendly face among strangers. His parents are the only two he ever cared for in this life and they're _gone._

Ryuu would have to bide his time until he amassed the skill and resources to begin his search for the prophecy child, which he dully recognized would take him many, many years.

So he, inevitably, would end up as a Kirigakure shinobi, used by the Mizukage's whim. The same Mizukage who is encouraging genocide of people just because of what clan they were born into. Which is the exact opposite of what he wanted for himself.

Back into the hands of someone like Voldemort. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

* * *

After a few days of rough travel—Ryuu being carried chest to chest by alternating masked shinobi—they reached an isolated building on the side of an established dirt road.

"Stay out here with the kid," the broad chested man he had heard addressed as 'Migi' ordered. "I'll go inside to collect the bounty." The female shinobi nodded in acknowledgment, and Spike just turned his head in bored dismissal.

As Migi headed inside the masked woman put him down, and curtly asked, "Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Without waiting for a response she forcefully shoved a half empty water canteen into his small hands.

Taking the hint, Ryuu unscrewed the lid and drank the rest of the water. He had a feeling he wasn't supposed to have drank the entirety of the contents, but he couldn't care less about using up their resources after this entire ordeal—even if he would now have to deal with a water shortage later on in their trek across Hi no Kuni. Ryuu's pettiness was a leftover from his spoiled, pureblood heir days that he was sure would never fully disappear.

Spike stomped up and snatched the canteen from his hands with a 'tch'.

Ryuu watched interestedly as he made a cross with the fore- and middle fingers of each hand.

The former Slytherin's eyebrows lifted as a mass of water began collecting together in the air in front of the masked hunter nin.

Once there was a decent amount the man directed the floating mass into the empty canteen. "Heh. Bet you thought you were being slick," Ryuu rolled his eyes at the man's smug tone, "It just rained a few days ago so there's plenty of moisture in the air to collect if you have the proper training," Spike continued on pompously.

"Do you ever get tired of hearing your own voice?" Ryuu drawled in a bored tone. Blue snorted loudly behind him.

"As a matter of fact, I don't," the brunette claimed, unabashed. "I'm my _own_ love of my life!" He continued dramatically.

As much as Draco disliked the guy, he couldn't help but crack a smile at that. Especially since he had felt much the same way during his time at Hogwarts. Always acting as if he was Merlin's gift to the wizarding population, and completely assured of his own superiority.

Blue looked at Spike with what Ryuu could only imagine was a deadpan expression underneath the mask.

An uncomfortable feeling in his bladder reminded him of the question Blue had originally asked him. He tugged on Blue's pants. "I do actually need to go," the toddler muttered.

The kunoichi looked down at him and sighed, holding out her hand for him to hold. Ryuu gave her a disdainful look that clearly said 'that's not happening' as he began walking toward the closest copse of trees.

Blue sighed again in exasperation as she followed him, not willing to let him out of their collective sights.

A few minutes later the two headed back, Ryuu feeling relieved, but uncomfortable from the lack of privacy he was given.

Migi exited the bounty station just as he and Blue returned from their impromptu bathroom trip.

He was quickly scooped up as the three bounded into the surrounding forest. Much to his disgust, the three stopped not ten minutes later—as soon as they were a fair distance away from the station—in order to split the bounty three ways.

It brought enraged tears to Ryuu's eyes, to see his mother's death come down to _this_. Nothing more than dirty money lining three murderer's pockets.

* * *

A few days later the group of four arrived at the coast. Not even at a dock or anything, just on a narrow, rocky beach that was quite small due to the large cliff face to one side of it. Ryuu was wondering how they intended to make it to this island if they weren't near any boats, it's not like they had broomsticks here to fly into Mizu no Kuni.

The three shinobi stopped at some unspoken signal and Spike—whom was carrying him—dropped him unceremoniously. A keen pain wracked his frame as he landed on the sharp rocks littering the ground. One of the more jagged ones managed to graze his inner thigh, breaking the skin.

Ryuu hissed at the man, and he could practically feel the smugness rolling off of him from behind the mask.

The past few days had seen his sadness quickly morphing into mute anger. He had been quite snappy with Spike, because out of the three he was the most easily riled up, and seeing the irritation he caused brought the boy some sense of satisfaction. Blue would also stick up for Ryuu, and reprimand the brunette if he made any overtly threatening movements toward the blonde.

The two had been in some sort of petty contest ever since the first time Ryuu got him in trouble with his teammates. No matter how many times Spike would point out the boys manipulative streak, Blue shut him down quickly—his complaints falling on deaf ears.

" _Oh, is the big bad toddler scaring you? Maybe you should be doing something useful instead of having staring contests with two-year-olds. He can't even tell if you blink, moron."_

Honestly, Ryuu feels like both she and Migi know exactly what he's doing, but they're just letting him do it anyway. He doesn't know whether it's because they don't care or whether they just find it amusing—if the man 'Migi' ever finds anything amusing.

Over the past few days Spike's bed roll had been soiled, Ryuu was given soggy rations bars, Spike's hair roots had been pulled out by the handful, and Ryuu's clothes had been soaked one morning after washing up in a nearby stream. He had been forced to wear the clothes anyway, and developed the sniffles. Ryuu made sure he sneezed on the spiky-haired man frequently that day.

Blue turned to him, still on the ground, and called, "You can play in the shallows if you want. We have to talk and set up camp." She began walking over to Migi.

Spike chuckled and leaned down to whisper, "Yeah, go ahead and get in the water kiddie. Maybe that blood will draw some sharks." He began walking away.

The blonde scowled and chucked a rock at him, which he easily evaded, not even bothering to turn around.

Standing up he walked to the edge of the water. There was no sand on the shore, just fragmented seashells and rocks of various sizes. It was beautiful out here, but at the same time everything appeared broken and barren.

He found a fairly large piece of driftwood and sat down to stare out at the ocean.

Draco had never been all that fond of the ocean. He had no reason to be. He never enjoyed the beauty of things, instead focusing on being 'pureblood' and making everyone who wasn't pureblood as miserable as possible.

It was nice for him to just sit for awhile and admire something he had no appreciation for previously.

He did his best to empty his mind and observe the sight before him.

Blue interrupted maybe twenty minutes later. "Alright, Ryuu-chan. Camp is all set up. We're going to sleep here for tonight, but we're leaving early tomorrow morning."

Ryuu sighed lightly and nodded in acknowledgment.

After he trudged over to where the trio made camp, he plopped down on another piece of driftwood that had been pulled over for a seat. The next few hours he kept to himself, eating his rations bar and gazing out at the dark sea.

When he finally laid down to sleep it was a long time coming.

* * *

When he woke up the next morning, Ryuu was unceremoniously tossed another disgusting rations bar as the masked shinobi went about breaking down the small campsite.

Glaring distastefully at the nutrient-rich bar, he rubbed his stomach, silently promising it some real food soon. Despite having food three times a day, he never felt like he had eaten much of anything. He couldn't wait to get into Mizu no Kuni to eat some meat, he'd even settle for the food he had to eat in Azkaban.

After he finished forcing down the dry portion of foodstuff he lazed on the log watching the three scurry about, imagining they were his house elves doing his bidding. It was especially funny when Spike sprouted huge, bat-like elf ears and began singing in a squeaky voice.

Someone jerked his shoulder hard, and Ryuu was wrenched from his hazy half-dream.

"Up! What are you doing going back to sleep? Kuso, I can't wait until you aren't our problem anymore," Spike snapped. "The least you can do is be ready to go!"

Blue materialized out of nowhere to smack his head. "Shut up. Leave the kid alone," she turned to Ryuu, "He is right about being ready to go though. Go ahead and wait over by the water, we're almost done here."

The young boy sat up from his previous position, actually glad that he had been awoken. The way he had fallen asleep was less than comfortable, and he is sure that he would have been aching if he laid there much longer.

He trudged over to the area Blue had indicated, and waited. Not long after, the three joined him at the water's edge.

"Let's go," Migi ordered, scooping Ryuu up.

Ryuu found himself beyond confused when the other's faced the ocean as if they were heading out to sea. Had he been wrong? Did they have some way to fly or teleport that he hadn't been privy to? It's certainly not impossible. He doesn't know everything about this place.

Seconds later he discovered exactly what they meant. The trio ran straight at the ocean, and without stopping began sprinting on the water. Ryuu felts himself gape momentarily before snapping his mouth closed.

What a useful trick.

* * *

A few hours later found Ryuu sunburned and thirsty.

How long could they possibly run on water? Either the island wouldn't be much farther, they had large chakra reserves, or it didn't take much chakra to maintain their water-running.

Turns out he was wrong on at least one count.

Within minutes of his previous thoughts the trio slowed to a trot.

"Where is it? I know it's somewhere around here," Spike asked sounding irritated. Ryuu must not be the only one suffering from the heat of the sun.

Blue pointed at a pile of floating kelp that was about three meters wide. "It's over there you nitwit," she snapped.

Ryuu squinted. It just looked like a mass of plants to him.

The group approached the floating kelp swiftly.

Once they were about a meter away, Draco felt a foreign chakra enter his system. He gasped and squirmed before realizing that Migi had used his chakra to break a genjutsu that had been cast on the area.

Once the illusion was dispelled he saw a small floating platform. There were two shinobi stationed there.

The two groups stared at each other before Migi stepped up to say, "Hunter-nin squad thirty-one returning to Mizu no Kuni. Requesting permission to rest before continuing on."

"Request granted," the shorter shinobi grunted disinterestedly.

Migi placed Ryuu down on the platform and the blonde child scampered a short distance away. Despite Migi being the least talkative and most calm of the group, he couldn't help but feel like that man was the most dangerous. That would make sense since he is the leader as well. Not only that, but every time Ryuu looked at the man he couldn't help but see the moment the man beheaded his mother's body.

Blue sauntered over to him. "Here," she handed him another rations bar, ignoring his grimace, "This will be your last rations bar for probably a long while, tragic I know. Once we get to the mainland we will be able to cook. We're going to be stopping by a smaller outpost at an outer island first, where we can eat and rest, and then we will be traveling on to the main village. We'll figure out what to do with you there," the kunoichi explained.

Ryuu nodded in acknowledgment, not thanking the woman this time. He was too tired, and too thirsty to bother with niceties.

The young boy chewed thoughtfully on the bar as he tried to keep his mind off of what would happen to him now. He chose instead to imagine how things were back in his old world.

No doubt Narcissa was visiting his father once a month in Azkaban since her house arrest was over. She probably took over the Malfoy businesses in Lucius's and his absence. Probably still bothered by Draco's death, but too prideful to show it.

He imagines Weasel King and the Mudblood are surely married now. (He shuddered in disgust.) Shacklebolt is probably the permanent minister now, and McGonagall is a superb Headmistress of Hogwarts. Better than the old coot had ever been, anyway.

Yes, he likes to think things are much better over there now that the Dark Lord is dead, and most of the former Death Eaters are rounded up in Azkaban.

Ryuu is brought out of his ruminations as Blue kicks his leg. "Up," she hauls him upright by the arm, "Drink some water, and then we're onto the next leg of the journey."

He peers around as he drinks from the full canteen. Migi and Spike were both stretching, and Blue had wandered over to talk to the maskless shinobi who were stationed there. After a seconds the guard closest to him retrieved a sealing scroll from his thigh pouch and released the array to show a bottle.

Blue nodded in appreciation, took three pills out of the bottle, and turned away so she could presumably chew one before doling out the remaining two to her teammates. Silently the masked-nin took the pills, also turning away to take them. The three had been surprisingly diligent about not removing their masks in front of him, so he had yet to see any of their faces.

Though he felt if he ever met them outside of their masks he would probably be able to recognize their hair styles, voices, and mannerisms.

But what could those pills possibly be?

Blue came back over to him and motioned to her back. It was her turn to carry him. Ryuu scrambled up and secured his arms around her neck. With their unspoken language all three set off again at a renewed pace once he was situated.

"Kunoichi-san," Ryuu spoke casually.

"What is it twerp," Blue said, less of a question and more of a demand.

"What were those pills you took?" He asked curiously, knowing that out of the three, Blue liked him the most—though she tried valiantly to hide such feelings.

Blue sighed in feigned annoyance. "Those are called soldier pills. It's a quick way to regenerate your chakra, basically. There's more to it, but you don't really need to know about it right now. Anymore obnoxious questions, gaki?"

"Yes, actually," the blonde said.

She grunted. "Well?"

Ryuu tucked his chin over her shoulder. "How are you running on water? I've never seen anything like that before."

The woman snorted before replying, "You must not have watched your parents train much then. Water-walking is a basic chakra exercise that is absolutely crucial for all shinobi. It comes after vertical-walking. For water-walking, we focus our chakra to our feet and have to constantly fluctuate it in order to remain above the water. Every step is a different chakra output. Don't worry, you'll learn it one day. I'm expecting good things from you."

"Thanks, I suppose," he mumbled blearily.

"Go ahead and sleep, it'll be a while before we get to the outpost I mentioned," Blue huffed.

Ryuu didn't even pretend he was thinking otherwise. It wasn't long before the constant motion of his companion had lulled him to sleep.

* * *

The next time Ryuu woke, he was in a bed. As much as this surprised him, he was too tired to properly react to this revelation and quickly succumbed to sleep once again.

He woke up presumably a few hours later. Sitting up, he observed his surroundings. The bed he had been sleeping in was a bunk bed, and he was on the upper mattress. The difference being that this bed had no ladder, and it was floating above the lower bunk rather than being attached to it. The bed frame was secured to the concrete wall with large bolts.

If he had his teenage stature, this would hardly have phased him, but seeing as he was not yet three the distance between him and the ground was a bit more significant.

Ignoring this for the moment he surveyed the rest of the room.

All up and down the room were multiple bunk beds, the same as the one he was on. There was a single metal door at the far end of the hall. Ryuu hummed. ' _A barack then?_ ' He wondered. The blonde did remember the kunoichi mentioning stopping at an outpost. He must have slept the entire journey here.

Listening intently he heard no one around. The thought of waiting for help both irritated him and made his pride rear up. Like hell he was going to be helped down by some shinobi. Why did they put him on the top bunk anyway?!

He can just imagine them smirking as they placed him up there thinking about him struggling to get down. He knew in reality it was probably just so that he would stay put and be discouraged from attempting to climb off of the bed. They probably didn't want him wandering around a Kiri base all on his lonesome.

Scoffing to himself he scooted to the edge of the bed, his feet dangling off of the end. He couldn't be more than one and a half meters from the ground, but it might as well have been three with his short stature. He carefully flipped onto his stomach, bracing himself with his forearms and began lowering himself down from the top. Dipping to where his shoulders were level with his forearms, he switched his grip to hold onto the edge one hand at a time.

Soon he was hanging off of the edge like it was a monkey bar. He swung himself forward a few times before releasing to land on the bed below him.

Feeling proud of himself he stood up with his hands on his hips, turning to hop off of the bed.

The blank-faced mask of Spike was level with his face, and he couldn't stop the yelp the escaped him as he tumbled backward onto his ass.

Even as he scowled and felt the heat creeping up his face, the spiky haired brunette was doubled over with laughter.

"Come on pipsqueak, breaks over," he panted through his dwindling mirth. "You can eat something real quick, and then we're leaving. About another day and a half and we will be there—it's my turn to carry you this time." He sounded both annoyed and amused now. Ryuu made a note to himself to aggravate the man as much as humanly possible before arriving in Kirigakure.

* * *

Ryuu's feelings were conflicted as they approached the closed gates of Mizu no Kuni's hidden village.

His emotions were in a constant state of flux the past week and a half of travel. Numb. Sad. Angry. Vindictive. Self pity. Rinse. Repeat.

The reincarnated Slytherin found himself nervous and increasingly anxious to hear his fate. This is a nation in the process of mass genocide, he doesn't doubt that they would have no trouble ridding themselves of one insignificant orphan.

And on the flipside, if they do spare his life, what will become of him? Being raised to become a ninja of the village slaughtering their own citizens?

Draco thought the point of being reborn was to redeem himself, not to be subjugated to someone he found increasingly similar to Voldemort with every passing comment the man's subordinates made. His frustration flared once again with his most recent thoughts.

He gripped tightly onto Spike's shoulders.

He felt the man chuckle.

"Here we are, home sweet home."

Ryuu couldn't help the shudder of dread that wracked his frame.

* * *

 **Translations:**

 **Hi no Kuni- Land of Fire**

 **Mizu no Kuni- Land of Water**

 **Kirigakure, Kiri- Village Hidden in the Mist**

 **Mizu Bunshin- Water clone**

 **Suiton- Water release**

 **Katon- Fire release**

 **Raiton- Lightning release**

 **Ojisan- Uncle/middle aged man**

 **Imouto- Little sister**

 **Kuso- Damn**

 **6 million ryo is about $600,000 USD**

 **Feel free to correct me if I used any terminology incorrectly!**

 **A big thank you to my beta, Phoebus Oberon, for all his hard work!**

 **A/N: Sorry this took so much longer than I predicted in my last author's note. I've decided I'm just not going to give any approximations anymore because they're always wrong! Lol**

 **If anyone is interested at all I have a longer explanation on my profile.**

 **I'll tell you, I'm exceedingly nervous about this chapter, and I'm not 100% happy with it. Any critiques are welcome!**

 **Also, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I hope all my readers had good ones! Both Christmas and my birthday have passed since my last update, and reviews would make lovely belated gifts ;)**

 **LAST THING! I might come back to make minor adjustments to this chapter, because I'm still trying to get the timeline compared to canon events figured out. I'll let you know if I change anything!**

 **Don't forget that I keep updates on my profile now~**

 **Until next time!**

 **Fortheloveofb**

 **This chapter's recs!**

 **To Be Lost on the Road of Life** **by** _ **AthanatosOra**_ **on ffn**

 **I've read this one three times and the fan art for it is my phone's background! It's fantastic!**

 **Perception** **and the sequel,** **Silver Lining** **by** _ **Cynchick**_ **on ffn**

 **I've read both of these twice. I would recommend all of her Naruto stories, just be warned that Sakura is a main character in all of them.**

 **Stumble** **by** _ **writer168**_ **on ffn**

 **Ughhhh. Please read this. I read this on vacation and I stayed up until 6:30 AM to read as much as I could before I absolutely had to sleep. I cried** _ **so much. So. Much.**_ **On that note, it's pretty dark. High recommended though.**

 **Lines on my Face from the Word of God** **by** _ **Zenthisoror**_ **on ffn**

 **A cute one shot talking about what exactly the lines on Itachi's face are.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Posted: 08/12/17 (Ryuu's birthday is tomorrow~)**

 **Important A/N: Okay guys, I feel like I should say this now while we're not really too far into the story. This fic will have many dark aspects. There's going to be death, murder, and many unpleasant things that you would associate with fics that dive into the darker aspects of shinobi life. I will try to add levity to most chapters, and I'm not saying there will be no good. BUT, I don't think I realized how dark this story would be until after I started writing it (or maybe that's just the sort of writing I'm most comfortable with)... I just remember thinking to myself 'man, I want Draco to have a** _ **really shitty**_ **time of it** _ **.'**_ **On the same vein, I think I mislabeled the genre of this fic. I have it under adventure and friendship, but I'm going to change it. Do you think drama or angst would be a better label?**

 **Also, I am going to stick close to canon for certain things. An anon assumed that I would just make Kiri go to the chunnin exams and that's how I would force Ryuu and Naruto together… that's not what's going to happen. Their meeting is going to happen at a canon event in an organic way. I'd like to be clear. The 'higher forces' in this fic had** _ **no control**_ **over where would be born or who Draco would be reborn as. Ryuu has to find his own way to Naruto, he's just kinda been hurled into this impossible situation.**

 **I know I haven't addressed it in the fic yet, because it's not easy to make a connection between what's going on in Ryuu's personal life, and what's going on in canon events around him, but Ryuu is older than the Rookie Nine.**

 **Warnings: Minor panic attack, mentions of substance abuse**

 **Beta'd by HellkingUzumaki**

* * *

The group of four approached the looming gate without slowing down. The hunter nin veered to the left as one and walked through a stretch of wall that was apparently covered by a genjutsu. Draco violently repressed the memories of the first time he walked onto Platform 9 ¾ with difficulty.

Directly inside the gates was a small guard post. Migi and Blue strode over to do whatever they had to do to get into the village. Present their mission scroll or something was what the young blonde assumed.

Ryuu was dropped without warning, but this time he landed lightly on his feet. Maybe it wasn't announced, but there was now an unspoken agreement that Spike would drop him at the first opportunity. "You can walk from here on out kid. I ain't carting you around anymore. You're finally going to be off our hands!" Spike cackled, before yelping at the thwack Blue gave him. Apparently it didn't take long to finish their business with the gate guards because Migi stalked over in the midst of his subordinate's latest squabble.

"—Can't you at least attempt to remain professional?! We're about to report to Yondaime-sama! Control yourself!" The bluenette hissed as she momentarily turned away from the brunette man to usher Ryuu ahead of them.

As the two dissolved into their usual bickering, the blonde observed the first Great Shinobi village he had ever been to up close and personal.

When observing the central land of Mizu no Kuni, Ryuu noticed the terrain of the largest island was very mountainous. Not tall and craggy like one may have expected, but wide, sloping mountains that appeared to occasionally plateau. The blonde had choked on his spit when Spike casually questioned Migi about any recent volcanic activity in the area. Apparently many of the volcanoes— _volcanoes?!_ —were still active. The active ones were being continuously watched by shinobi in case of an eruption—but all of those thoughts were for another day. His first view of Kirigakure from the crest of a hill near the village showed him the enormity of the place. Even by his initial glance, he could tell the village was much, much larger than Yugakure—which is saying something considering how large he found his home village to be—and even with the civil war occurring within Mizu no Kuni's borders he was positive that the population of this city was larger than Yugakure's.

Like it's namesake would have one assume, a thin layer of mist shrouded the cobbled streets. No doubt the humidity of the large island combined the cooling shadows from the surrounding mountains made this natural phenomenon a regular occurrence.

Although it was contradictory, the boy was both over and underwhelmed by the village. Aside from the sheer size of the place, the atmosphere of Kiri left him reeling. There was an air of emptiness and fear that surrounded the people of the Village Hidden in the Mist.

Ryuu found himself thrown back to his memories of Diagon Alley during Voldemort's reign; how frightened everyone was, how the dementors had practically free reign and all the happiness was sucked out of the very air itself, the families whose cries echoed up and down the cobbled streets when they were separated from their mudblood parents or spouses.

The similarities that were being rubbed in his face left him breathless in alarm. His legs stopped moving. His heart—which had faltered at the atmospheric flashback—began beating rapidly, his breath hitched before coming in short bursts. Black spots bloomed across his vision and the air itself felt like it was pressing in—then the female nin scooped him up and began talking him through breathing exercises to bring him out of his sudden panic attack.

Once his heart slowed and his breathing evened out he realized Blue was speaking to him. "Mizukage-sama isn't completely merciless,"—' _You lie_ ,' he thought, ' _Voldemort said the same thing, but he_ was'—, "He will see your potential. We didn't bring you on complete whim or else we would have put you out of your misery that very night," She cooed.

Another shiver wracked him as she made an amused sound in her throat. "See, you understand more than you let on. We've all noticed. You'll do well as a shinobi, and I'm sure our leader will see your smarts for what they are."

At this Ryuu sighed lightly. He didn't want expectations or recognition. Look at where that got him before—contempt from his fellows and a suicide mission from his lord.

Apparently mistaking his sigh for reassurance, his escort placed him back on the ground and straightened up. Looking around, he realized that Spike and Migi were no longer with them. Noticing his confusion, the kunoichi answered his unasked question, "The other two went ahead to the tower. We're heading that way to join them, come on." She gestured for him to follow her.

Having no alternative, he did.

After his initial panic, he continued observing the village and asking the occasional question. Many of the buildings were abandoned and boarded up. There weren't many people on the street, but those that were minded their own business and looked as if they were traveling with a specific goal in mind. No mothers were out with their children, and the few children he did see were thin with malnutrition and had a dead look about them—as if they expected their existence to end at the drop of a sickle. He caught the eyes of one of the children as he passed, but after the kid glanced up at Ryuu's companion he practically melted back into the shadows of a side street.

Blue snorted. "Don't pity them," she said, indicating the boy he just saw, "They could eat proper meals if they lived in one of the government endorsed barracks for academy students in the village. They would be fed and clothed, as well as getting a proper education, but they chose not to become shinobi. It's their own fault they are living like rats," she ended her rant; scorn dripping from every word.

In Ryuu's opinion, the children shouldn't have to throw their lives away just for some food and a bed to sleep in, but it also seemed as if they were throwing their lives away since they couldn't properly feed themselves. He could only imagine how hard the decision was for such young children. Become government enslaved killers or starve on the streets?

 _(He would be one of those children, except his path was already chosen for him.)_

Ryuu stayed silent; not willing to voice his thoughts. Plus, in all honestly, the kunoichi's moods gave him whiplash. She'd be defending him from Spike and treating him like a particularly annoying younger brother at one moment, then laughing at his fear or being completely unemotional or unsympathetic to his feelings the next moment. He would rather she treat him in a consistent fashion rather than this back and forth character change. Which one was the real her? Or had he seen the real her at all? His thoughts made him wary, despite the fact that she had been the most welcoming of him. It was hard to find any of them truly likeable when they were so similar to his former masked associates. Blue in particular reminded Ryuu of his aunt Bellatrix, if Bellatrix was a bit less insane.

The pair continued walking farther into the village. He watched the civilians flit past, no shinobi in sight. At least, none that he could spot with his meager experience. The variety of buildings were great—he had been past multiple residential districts, and a market district. Not to mention, many of the roofs of the buildings housed gardens on top of them. Currently they were about to walk through a business district. And though many of the store fronts are empty or don't display their wares, this is the busiest section he had seen yet. No fancy displays, just simple plaques with labels like 'Cobbler' or 'Seamstress' with the owner's names underneath. The civilians' hustle and bustle is still quiet and terse, but the atmosphere was the slightest bit lighter. Perhaps being surrounded by others had allowed the tension in their shoulders to lessen, if only for a while.

"We will be leaving the civilian district shortly. Once we get into the shinobi part of the village I will carry you again until we get to the administrative building," Blue said. "I'm pretty sure the other two will be done giving their reports by now, and it would take too long for you to walk all the way there. We don't want to keep our Kage waiting."

At her use of 'our Kage' his lips downturned. Even if he is forced to live here, even if he becomes a Kirigakure shinobi he will _never_ acknowledge a man that advocates genocide as _his_ anything, especially not as his leader. Never again. At the same time though, he knows that if he is allowed to live (he is refusing to think that death is an option, even if he has technically died already) he will have to at least give the appearance of compliance and loyalty. Something he has done before, but something that he will loathe to do again.

Ryuu is brought out of his thoughts as he is lifted into the arms of his kunoichi captor. "Alright. Things might be blurry for a minute. I'll put you down as soon as we get there, and for Kami's sake if you have to puke, don't do it on me!" She said, shaking a fist for emphasis.

The pink eyed boy nodded and tucked his face into her neck in preparation. He's pretty sure he knows how they will arrive at their destination quickest, and that was the body flicker. Nao had explained it to him once before… before the incident.

There was a horrible lurching sensation and a swoop in his gut before everything stopped abruptly. He was put down on the ground, body swaying at the unfamiliar feeling that he had only been exposed to once previously. Still, he didn't so much as dry heave. Even if his new body had not gone through any magical transportation in this life, his mind remembered, and this method of transportation was nowhere near as awful as traveling by floo powder or even apparation.

Still, Blue tilted her head curiously as she stared down at the child. "Every brat I've ever done that to has puked their guts out afterward," she prodded pointedly.

"So you're around kids a lot then?" Ryuu asked, ignoring the unspoken question. Blue huffed and turned to stalk into the building. He smirked at the childish reaction, even though he knew it wasn't genuine.

He gave the sector a cursory glance. The former Slytherin found himself taken aback by the complete change in his surroundings, they must have come quite far into the village to reach an expanse of forested area like this.

There were swaths of trees expanding out from the building, and the building itself was wider than any of the structures he had seen so far. It had the Kiri symbol emblazoned on the outside, and had an extremely intimidating aura.

In and around the swaths of trees were tall outposts, some even connected to their neighbors. Even from this distance Ryuu could see the shinobi traveling from one to the other.

Forcing himself to stop gawking, he turned his back to the trees and scrambled after Blue.

Stepping into the building Ryuu became hyper aware as his subconscious once again brought to his attention that he could be walking right to his own death. Even though he had died before, that was a painless death. One he didn't subject himself to willingly. Plus, he has a mission here! One he hasn't even had a chance to complete! _(Not that he wants to, because he_ doesn't _)_ At the same time though, it might be a relief—to die that is. Free from the burdens of this new life, and, perhaps, he would be back with those he knew from his first life? Those that died in the war… but Potter had made it sound like different 'universes' have different afterlives… Which would be total tripe if anyone asked him. Then again, even if he went to a plane that connected to this one, he would have Nao and Hisa back, and they were much more valuable to him than any acquaintances who perished in his old world.

 _(Even if he couldn't help but resent them for leaving him in this predicament. Even if he wasn't sure how they would react knowing their son wasn't their son at all.)_

Still, he doesn't actually want to die. _Again._ At least, not yet. Besides the fact that he generally completes any assignment that he is given, he also remembers the fact that the 'Council' chose him specifically for this task—and dying won't save him from them if they thought Ryuu intentionally floundered the task he was designated.

Shaking himself from his introspective bullshit, the blonde realized Blue was leading him to a fairly large set of double doors. Somehow he had been so focused on his inner rumination that he completely missing the entire trip up to the Kage's office. Inwardly panicking, he involuntarily slowed his steps the closer they came to the ornately decorated entryway.

Blue turned to him before impatiently beckoning him forward.

"Look, I get that you're nervous, but you better show Mizukage-sama respect! You're reflecting on all of us here. We, but really I mean just me, are sticking our necks out for you,"—she crouched down to his level—"There's something about you, I just can't put my finger on it, but I know it would be a waste to not draw out your potential as a shinobi." Straightening back up she grasped the handle of the righthand door and pulled it open wide enough for them to slip through.

"After you," she purred playfully in an attempt to calm his nerves and get him moving along.

Ryuu slowly walked forward before peeking into the room. It was large. Large, yet sparsely decorated. Aside from the sizable desk (whose occupant he was avoiding looking at for as long as possible), there wasn't much else other than a large array of filing cabinets and a few uncomfortable looking chairs. With such drab ornamentation, Ryuu reluctantly brought his attention to the only other outstanding piece of furniture. Both Migi and Spike were standing at attention in front of the darkly colored wooden desk, as a childlike figure in the chair ignored everyone in the vicinity to continue writing… whatever it was that he was writing.

Ryuu once again glanced around the room wondering if he somehow missed someone else—which would be entirely understandable considering these people train to be undetectable from a remarkably young age—because that child sitting at the desk was the only person he was unfamiliar with, and he must obviously be the Mizukage's child or something along those lines. Though he's surprised that someone as ruthless and homicidal as the Mizukage has been described would allow a child, even their own, to sit at his desk in the Kage's office. Leaders of that magnitude and disposition tend to be fairly possessive of their signs of leadership.

Even though only a few seconds had passed in actuality, it was apparently too long for the masked kunoichi. A foot was promptly placed on his rump and gave him a hard shove. The reincarnated child squeaked as he stumbled into the room on uneven feet. No one paid him any mind, but he did hear a suspicious sounding cough from Spike.

Blue stepped into the wide room after him, shutting the door behind her. Stepping forward, she ushered him two meters or so in front of the desk where he assumed they would wait for the 'esteemed' Yondaime Mizukage. Blue was already standing at attention with her masked teammates, and left him standing in between her and Migi.

Ryuu's eyes fell shut, and his shoulders eased a bit. All the tiredness he had felt ever since _that night_ seemed to crash down on him all at once.

His heart, which had been increasingly frantic ever since he took his first step into Kirigakure proper, was calming—perhaps a bit contradictorily. Now, being in the room where he would hear the judgement of whether he would live or die, he felt more at peace. Knowing that the answer was so close, that he had no chance to turn back anymore. It would either happen, or it wouldn't. The wait was over.

He tried not to worry about what would happen afterwards either way, it would just stress him out even more while he was in this unfamiliar office with these unfortunately familiar people. Well, mostly familiar.

Curiously, Ryuu's eyes fluttered open to observe the child sitting behind the abnormally short desk. The boy was actually remarkable similar to the former Slytherin's current body. While the Ryuu's hair was almost the same color as his, the boy's was a tad more flaxen than Ryuu's ash blonde. The texture, too, was different. Much thicker and less tame than Ryuu's straight tresses. What was even more remarkable, was the fact that this child also had pupiless eyes, pupiless _pink_ eyes. A few shades lighter yes, but even here he doubted such eyes were common. It made the younger boy wonder whether or not they were related, and made him even more interested in the boy's apparent connection to the current Kage.

A throaty hum came from the person at the desk, "Are you done staring at me, child?" He spoke, with a timbre that belied his age. It was much deeper than Ryuu had imagined—even if it wasn't as deep as an actual man's, he was clearly not a child—and it was unbelievably jarring to hear such a voice from a body that looked no older than ten.

The man lifted his head to meet his eyes, and Ryuu could not help the way his body locked up at the assessing gaze he was sent. Those pupiless eyes were unnervingly sharp, and extremely cold. How had he mistaken this person for a second? Even with the appearance of a child he could now recognize the aura of power that cloaked the Kage like a second skin. It reminded him of his dismally frequent meetings with his former master at the manor. Voldemort had those same cold, calculating eyes that saw you not as a person, but only for your worth toward his own goals.

There was a stitched scar underneath his left eye that Ryuu had not noticed previously, and it was thrown into stark relief when the man's eyes crinkled in a joyless smile. "I am Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage. My subordinates have told me quite a bit about you."

Blue nudged his back with her knee, reminding the boy to be polite even as his posture remained rigid. "I am Ryuu Yamakawa. It is nice to meet you, Mizukage-sama," He said stiltedly, bowing low. His vocabulary was vast compared to even a few months previously, but there were many things he was still unsure of—structure wise. He could only hope he wouldn't make any foolish mistakes during this meeting where it could be the difference whether he lives or dies, and that he could get the gist of any complicated wording through context clues. He figured sticking to the less difficult words would serve best.

"I'll be frank with you in this meeting. Before you arrived I was briefed on the whole of the mission and the circumstances surrounding your retrieval. I was also told of your frighteningly high intellect," this gave Ryuu a start as he straightened up from his bow to meet matching pupiless eyes. He continued knowingly, "You may not have spoken or interacted with them much, but that's almost just as telling. For a two-year-old you handle emotional situations abnormally calmly, but you had plenty of slips, and ninja are raised on those sort of observations. I am not going to speak down to you like I normally would a small child, because I know you will understand my meaning."

Ryuu nodded cautiously.

"Good. I want you to know that the only reason that I am bothering with you at all is because my subordinates saw something worthwhile in you. They say you have the potential to be an excellent shinobi, and that your intelligence will take you far. Nami here—," he gestured at Blue (who apparently is called 'Wave' when she is in uniform? Ryuu will stick with his usual nickname), "—personally vouched for you. I was willing to meet with you to see you for myself. Her partners relayed her request that you be taken care of until you are of academy age.

"Now, this request is very unusual. While this isn't the first time an orphaned child has been brought back to the village, I can count the number of times it has been done under my rule on one hand. The precedent isn't exactly set on what to do with them. I've both allowed an orphaned child to stay, and denied the other two," it was easy to tell what happened to those particular orphans just by meeting Yagura's hard gaze. "While it is true that we could always use more competent shinobi, I also have to think about where your loyalties may lie, and whether you are worth the investment. Even if you are smarter than average, even if you end up as a prodigy, it will still be years until we can cash out on your potential. Will it be worth the time and money that will be put into you?"

Recognizing that this wasn't a rhetorical question Ryuu promptly replied, "Yes, Mizukage-sama."

Using his occulmency, he shoved all of his feelings down temporarily. He needed to choose his words in such a way that it sounded as if he were speaking earnestly. "I feel like I can place my loyalty fully in Kirigakure. Those two nin killed my mother. Had they not been defeated, I am sure they would have found me and killed me. Your hunter nin saved me, and offered me a place here. I'm grateful," Ryuu said in an—at least seemingly—sincere voice.

Yagura sported a less than impressed look. "According to my subordinates, even though you were essentially compliant, you did act maliciously toward at least one of them," He says blandly, eyes sliding over to the spiky haired brunette. "That doesn't sound like you were grateful to me."

Ryuu clamped down on his instinctive (and considerably rude) response to counter, "He was an exception—he was annoying and provoked me repeatedly. I never gave the other two any trouble."

Spike scoffed dismissively to his left.

Yagura switched gears. "How do you feel about Kiri, knowing that the two who killed you mother originated here?"

The child allowed himself a short intake of air. "Sir, I understand that bad people are everywhere. Just like there are good people everywhere. It would be wrong of me to use two people to measure a whole country."

The short Kage nodded thoughtfully.

"Very well. You will be taken to an orphanage outside of Kirigakure. On an island at the edge of Mizu no Kuni. While I may be allowing you to live, just incase this is some elaborate scheme I don't want you to be raised inside the village walls. I doubt that it is, but one can never be too careful with the lives of their people."

Ryuu scoffed internally. What does he care for the lives of his people? He is literally having 'his people' hunt down and kill 'his people', just because of his personal beliefs against one group of the population. The former Slytherin knows he is hardly one to judge after the shitty way he treated those of lower blood status, but he regrets his past. Sometimes thinking back, his cheeks burn in shame just remembering the actions he took against people undeserving of his scorn.

The man continued on, either not knowing or not caring about his inner diatribe, "What this means for you is that you will have to attend an outside academy, rather than the main one here in the village. Not that you will never go to this academy, for our schools work on the basis of achievement as well as district. That is to say, you will at first go to the academy closest to your location, and then—if you are talented enough—you will be sent to our main academy with the best and brightest of Mizu no Kuni. This will allow you more opportunity for improvement, and it will allow you to compete against the strongest and smartest students of your year academically and physically—which will have the added benefit of better preparing you for shinobi life outside of a controlled environment."

With a pointed look, the man informed him, "I expect your name to be on the main academy's roster in a few years time, otherwise I might think you are no longer worth the investment."

"I'll live up to your expectations, Mizukage-sama," Ryuu said firmly. And he would, because he has to. Because he wants to live, and more than that, he wants to be able to defend himself. If taking advantage of the resources in the Kiri academy is the best way to do that, then he will.

"I have no doubt," The man agreed. Those pink eyes gave him one last appraisal.

The blonde Kage found a blank pad on his desk and wrote as he continued, "Now that that is taken care of—Nami, take him to get his forms taken care of. Same, Unagi—stay here." He ripped the note off of the pad and held it out to Blue. She stepped forward, bowed, took the paper, and ushered him out of the room.

* * *

The next few hours involved many packets of paperwork (who gives paperwork to a two year old? Ninja, apparently), an official picture for his file, and a growling stomach. After filling out the required papers, he was escorted back to the entrance of the Mizukage's office where Blue had been waiting for him.

She opened the door and gestured him inside for a second time.

Yagura didn't even deign to look up from his his desk before he began instructing Blue, "You will take him to the orphanage we discussed previously. Meet your partners at outpost 19-2. They will brief you once you arrive; your mission will not begin for at least another week—possibly longer. Recuperate from this last mission in the meantime, delivering the child should take three days at most."

Blue bowed again. "Of course, Mizukage-sama. You can count on me," she assured him.

"I know I can. You may take a few hours to rest and eat before you head out again." He allowed.

The man spared a look toward Ryuu and smiled thinly, "Remember what we discussed, boy."

The blonde in question repressed a scowl, but couldn't help but narrow his eyes at the jab. He wondered if Yagura felt the need to comment on his age since he was rather short himself. Still, he bowed stiffly once more before following the bluenette out of the administrative building, not once realizing how truly intriguing the Kage jinchuriki found him to be.

* * *

After just under three days of travel, this time heading in a different direction over the mountains, or possibly volcanoes, the two reached a bridge that connected the mainland to a smaller isle. As they crossed, Blue gave him perfunctory information about the island ('It's pretty small, but there are definitely smaller ones. It's about twenty miles across at its longest, and seven at its shortest'; 'There's a port too, but it's not a major cash cow, mostly keeps the local economy afloat'; 'Hey! Look at all that rust! Do ya think the bridge will collapse if I kick that support hard enough?'). By the time the pair arrived to the other side Ryuu was exuding a palpable aura of irritation.

"Awe, don't be like that shortstack! Nothing even happened!"

"You could have brought the whole bridge down around us! You literally tried to kick out one of the suspension cables in the middle of the damn bridge," Ryuu ground out through gritted teeth.

Even through the mask, Ryuu could tell the kunoichi was smirking in amusement. "Tch. Language. And yeah, but it didn't even break. I don't know why you're so worked up anyway, I wouldn't have even gotten hurt! I can walk on water."

"Well, _I_ can't!" Draco snapped, wishing he had a wand so he could curse his wretched minder.

"Oh yes, I must have forgotten," she lied, as if she weren't talking to an almost three-year-old with no chakra training. "I guess you better get on that then! It'd be a tragedy if the bridge had collapsed and you drowned or something. Plus, being surrounded by all this water is incentive enough." She glanced at him and added offhandedly, "When I first started using chakra, I made sure I did the control exercises all the way up to water walking before I learned a single technique, ya know."

If he hadn't been so irritated Ryuu would have rolled his eyes at the blatant attempt at manipulation. But, just because he knew it was manipulation doesn't mean it wasn't working. The blonde could easily believe the advice was sound, and he had been about to learn the basics of chakra at home in any case. (He did his best to ignore the pang in his chest at the reminder of his parents and their former home—he failed.)

Deflating, Ryuu sighed in defeat. "And how would I find chakra control exercises? I've never learned about chakra so I need the basics first."

"Like I would know where to find chakra texts on this dump. Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. You're going to be a shinobi, you figure it out. I'm sure there are resources _somewhere_ on this kami forsaken island."

The young child found himself having to focus quite exclusively on his occlumency skills just to prevent himself from screaming at the infuriating kunoichi beside him. "So you try to maneuver me into learning things in a certain way, but you won't even help me find the materials to do it?" He asked with a false sense of calm.

"That's about the right of it," Blue replied dispassionately.

Seething internally, Ryuu was unsure whether he wanted to learn everything about chakra as quickly as possible to prove that he could, or if he wanted to not touch anything about chakra at all just to spite her. The second option tempted him precisely because he knew she wanted the first response from him.

But, he also knew he would likely never meet the bluenette again after this, and learning about chakra was definitely something that he was planning to do in the near future. Following her advice wasn't being manipulated by her if he knew that was what she was attempting to do, right?

A hand snapped it's fingers in front of his face.

"I've been trying to get your attention. We will be there in less than thirty minutes. I'm going to drop you off, but I'm leaving right after. I'm sure you heard Mizukage-sama, I have a mission soon and I have to rendezvous with my squad."

Ryuu nodded absently. He was nervous obviously, but he was also glad that he would be able to sit down; his legs were aching almost as bad as they did when he first began his flexibility training disguised as stretching. Before they had reached the bridge, Blue told him he had to walk to rest of the way to 'test his endurance' or something equally asinine. It had been about five hours since then. How much endurance could she seriously bloody expect from an underdeveloped child?

He spent the remainder of the walk observing what he could of the dark landscape, and trying to remember the different roads he came across for future reference.

By the time they reached the building he assumed was the orphanage, it was well into nighttime hours, and he honestly couldn't wait to get inside and away from these blood sucking _bugs._ Though he had been fairly busy angsting the last week and some change, he had also come to discover his profound hatred for all things with six legs. Ryuu had been bitten by more ants and mosquitos than he could count, and no amount of anti-itch cream could help the sheer _amount_ of bites littering his body.

Subtly shifting from foot to foot once the two reached the elevated landing to the front door, Ryuu watched on in a mixture of nervousness, irritation, and relief ( _the journey is finally over, he can_ mourn _, and rage, and study so he can learn how to protect himself in this insane place_ ) as Blue walked up the the paint-chipped door. She rapped sharply, before glancing at him. He scowled at the masked woman, trying to rub some of the newer bites on his arms without _actually_ scratching them.

The duo heard footsteps growing increasingly louder (but really, it sounded like a horse was clomping around in there), and the footsteps themselves seemed quite unsteady.

A woman in her mid twenties, who otherwise could have been called attractive, opened the door—bloodshot blue eyes, and brittle brown hair in an off kilter bun with fly-aways extending every which way from her scalp. Her clothing was unkempt and patched, but practical. The thing that really drew their attention though was how glassy those blue eyes were, and the way she couldn't focus on the two at the threshold.

The woman stumbled to a stop, leaning against the doorframe as she observed himself and Blue, at least, as much as she could observe them under whatever she had used. He had noticed her holding a weapon of some sort when she first opened the door, but it had disappeared by the next time he had looked for it. Ryuu could tentatively guess she was a retired or discharged shinobi, but she must not have been a very high rank. He had never heard his parents or the hunter nin walking on anything other than silent feet, and he doubted any sort of self-imposed substance would change that.

Even though he couldn't see her face, the tone of Blue's voice clearly conveyed her disapproval of the brunette's altered state.

"Were you not informed that we were coming? I was told by a chunnin in the administration building that the orphanage would be apprized of their newest charge."

The woman hummed noncommittally. "I was told, but I didn't expect ya in the middle o' the night. It's kinda rude, ya know?" Honestly, Ryuu was just surprised that the woman was speaking so clearly (even if the diction was less than desirable). He almost winced though, knowing that the hunter nin probably wouldn't appreciate that answer.

He was right.

Blue's voice lost all inflection, yet it hardened as well, "I have a time sensitive mission from Mizukage-sama, and my teammates are waiting for me. I haven't had a full night of sleep in over a month, and I probably won't for at least another. But by all means, I'm sorry for interrupting your alone time." He wonders if the sarcasm was lost on the brunette.

The former Slytherin wasn't sure if it was Blue's voice, what she actually said, or if it was a mixture of the two, but the other woman unconsciously straightened up as his companion spoke.

Obviously, she hadn't lost all of her decorum as she quickly bowed and unsteadily stepped back to allowed the pair inside. "Sorry. Don't think before I speak much these days—your time's certainly more valuable than mine, kunoichi-san. Guess there's a reason I never made it past genin; if I woulda had to take one of the latest academy exams I woulda been slaughtered," She breathed with an airy laugh. The blonde wondered what the hell kind of exams they were expected to pass at that last statement.

Blue grunted as she strode inside, and Ryuu could tell by her body language that she did not like this woman at all.

"I'm Mone Tsuji, the matron of this... quaint home," the newly acquainted Mone informed them—with an ample amount of bitterness that she probably couldn't have hidden if she tried.

Blue jabbed Ryuu, so he bowed and followed her unspoken demand with a grimace, "I am Ryuu Yamakawa, please take care of me."

As he straightened, he saw Mone wipe the irritated look off of her face as she responded, "Yeh, well, I'll get a futon ready. I hope ya don't mind sharin' rooms, 'cause it's pretty cramped here. I'll be back in just a mo'." She left the two in the foyer, somehow managing to stay upright without the support of a wall.

Blue whistled. "Well, good luck kid. Doesn't look like that great of an existence here. I guess you better work hard to get into the main academy in Kiri then, ehh?" The bluenette nudged him.

Slapping her elbow away he growled lowly, having about had it from her for today (and forever if he were being honest). "I thought you were only dropping me off? Aren't you leaving?"

Blue made an offended sound in the back of her throat. "And this is the thanks I get?! Kids these days." Ryuu's eye roll could not be suppressed. "Don't worry, brat. She's going to put you down for bed, then we have to sign some paperwork and I have to give her some files, then I'll be gone. I can't wait to be rid of you!"

Ryuu shared the sentiment wholeheartedly, but he also dreaded being left here. He had so many conflicting emotions about his current predicament that it was hard to pin them down with words. He was glad that he would never have to see the trio of hunter nin again, he truly was. But, he was also apprehensive. The last few months, beginning with the death of his father, had completely upended his second life. Now he was parentless and alone in a civil war ridden country, and his only constant companion was about to leave him for good. No matter how much distaste he held for her and her comrades, it was still a daunting thought.

After a brief silence, Mone returned to the foyer.

"Come now, 'll show ya to the bathroom, an' then the room you'll be sharin' with some o' the others. Take those filthy rags off too—here's some night clothes," She handed him a pair of frayed pajamas that had his snobby side upturning his nose at the coarse material, but he accepted the clothing without a word. His current outfit was so soiled he would have even prefered those atrocious dress robes Weasley had worn to the Yule Ball in fourth year, and that's saying something.

"Back in a jiff, kunoichi-san." The matron called over her shoulder as she lead him out of the room.

With a blank face, Ryuu looked back to observe the woman he had dubbed as 'Blue'. She was watching him leave as well. The parting seemed so abrupt, but perhaps that was for the best. They kept their eyes on each other until the blonde boy turned a corner. Ryuu couldn't help wonder if the two would meet again, and how he might react. By then, he would _hopefully_ be a competent shinobi fully capable of taking care of his own hide.

He smiled grimly as he was led to bathroom where he changed, everything else could wait until morning. Still contemplating the future, he exited the bathroom and allowed himself to be steered to a room full of sleeping children.

(He could feel the eyes of some of the light sleepers on him as the matron shuffled along, still slightly off kilter.)

Yes, if they met again he would not be weak. Whether he was manipulated into his life as a shinobi or not—and who was he kidding, everything since his death had been a manipulation to sway him into the life of a ninja—he would surpass her expectations, _everyone's_ expectations. Maybe this wasn't what he wanted, but he will bloody well make sure that when death comes a second time, he will be able to say he did his best—his best to help the prophecy child, his best to redeem his past, his best to stop the genocide happening in this country (even if it took a lot of time and patience). If his best wasn't good enough, well, his name isn't Harry-bloody-Potter, nobody should expect miracles from him.

"Go ta sleep. Wake-up call's at six."

He didn't reply as he collapsed on the tatty futon that had been provided for him. Exhaustion weighed heavily on his limbs, and extended into Ryuu's emotional state as well. Even with his unease for the future, and the curious (and dare he say assessing) eyes on his form, the boy couldn't help but immediately fall into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

 **A/N:** _ **AYEEEE, ONE YEAR OF POSTING Y'ALL**_ **. Doesn't feel like I've gotten much done, but ehh. I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU GUYS~**

 **So, super late in posting this. I know, I know. I can tell you guys all the reasons it took so long (aside from being lazy af), but it's** _ **mostly**_ **because my son (who is four now! Crazy stuff!) has stopped napping all together. That is three hours of free time that I no longer have everyday, which is a big deal. Officially the only time I can do any sort of activity without my son being in my face is after he goes to bed, and needless to say writing isn't the only thing I do with my free time! Plus, the only night I'm actually in an environment where I can write is on Thursdays. Soooo, yeah! I'm going to stop mentioning things like this after this chapter because I feel like I just write excuses every A/N. _**

 **Basically: I have a** _ **kid**_ **. I'm a** _ **single mother**_ **. I don't have lots of free time. I'm a really slow and precise writer. I'm not naturally inclined to writing. Writing is far from the top of things I do with my free time. Most chapters will be written slowly, in all likelihood. I desperately wanted to be one of those fanfic writers who could keep an update schedule, but I doubt that will be possible :( Maybe once my son is in school (depending on how bogged down I am with college), then I might be able to work something out. Until then, I'm going to have to say my updates with remain sporadic. I'm sorry that I ever gave the impression that I could keep an update schedule, and I honestly have no idea how I kidded myself into thinking I could force it to work. Lol My next work (if there ever is one) I'll make sure to write at least ten or fifteen chapters before posting anything.**

 **Can I also just point out that I have written over 50k in a year and some fics that have 1k or 2k+ followers have written like 40k in 5 years? Sometimes less? I think I'm doing decent. It's just the fact that all my words go into long scenes so it doesn't seem like I'm getting anywhere lol**

 **I was going to write a longer A/N, but I know I bore you guys to death with the long one I already wrote.**

 **Reviews would be appreciated… I honestly don't get much feedback, and with that in mind, I borrowed the idea (with permission) from another author to ask questions to encourage reviews, and to better my writing. No promises that I'll get better overnight, but it's a process! Review or PMs are fine!**

 _ **Do you understand why Draco/Ryuu is submitting to what's going on so easily? I had a reviewer who did not understand, so I'm wondering if anyone does.**_

 _ **What do you like the most about my fic/writing? Dislike the most?**_

 _ **What do you think of Ryuu's 'relationship' with the hunter nin?**_

 _ **Do you mind my pacing and long scenes?**_

 _ **Keeping in mind Draco's personality, what are some of your predictions for Ryuu's skillset in the future?**_

 **This chapter's recs (There are a few more than usual because I read too many good things not to share the love):**

 **An Inch of Gold** **by** _ **KuriQuinn**_ **on ao3**

 **Guys, this could literally be a Naruto movie. It's so perfect. I'm pretty sure it is only a few chapters away from completion too!**

 **It's a lot like Naruto: The Lost Tower, but with the second gen meeting their genin parents. It's a really interesting and well thought out plot! Plus the characterization is A+**

 **Of Harrowed Hearts** **by** _ **Sable_Scribe**_ **on ao3**

 **Amazing writing. I cried a lot. And the fluff makes me smile so big! Basically it's where Naruto makes friends with Kurama when he's really young.**

 **Echoes of Light** **by** _ **CannibalisticApple**_ **on ao3**

 **I've been reading this since right after chapter two or three came out, I think… anyway. It's an Uchiha!OC (not SI) and it is soooooo great! Updated regularly for now as well! Highly recommend it. Ive cried so many times reading it, but hey, maybe I'm just a big baby.**

 **It Ends at Dawn** **by** _ **KannaKyomu**_ **on ffn**

 **Jesus, this is the purest Akatsuki fic ever. Well, as pure as it can be seeing as it's the Akatsuki… It's an SI/OC that gets adopted by the Akatsuki** — **which sounds like it would be one of those immature OMG AKATSUKI fics that are written by 13-year-olds, BUT THIS IS NOT LIKE THAT. IT'S SO GOOD. Plz read. I have definitely cried.**

 **Whispered Nothings** **by** _ **The Literate Devil**_ **(she must have just changed her name on here?) on ffn**

 **A sick!SI/OC. Super awesome. Crying a lot.**

 **Life Goes On** **by** _ **reighost**_ **on ffn**

 **A HP/Naruto crossover that is AMAZING. And deserves to be read by EVERYONE. Basically follows Obito's childhood and the world building is fantastic, and she puts a twist on Sharingan activation that I've never read before! She fleshes out the Uchiha MP and everything about this fic so far is amazing. Just… read it. Also crying a lot.**

 **I'm just going to reiterate that I'm a gigantic baby that cries over every fic that is the slightest bit emotional, okay? Okay.**


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